Publications

  1. Kubo, T.*, Sakamoto, M.* & Venditti, C. Evolutionary transitions to upright postures drive body size increase in mammals. PNAS – Accepted. *Equal first author.
  2. Sakamoto, M., Ruta, M. & Venditti, C. Extreme and rapid bursts of functional adaptations shape bite force variance in amniotes. Proc R Soc B. Accepted. [preprint on bioRxiv]
    • Using sophisticated statistical analyses, we find that bite force (how hard an animal bites) is for the most part dependent on the size of the animal (large animals can bite hard), as well as on ancestry (bite force is inherited from ancestors). However, we do find exceptional rates of bite force evolution in two groups of species studied: 1) birds and their dinosaurian relatives; and 2) anthropoid primates including fossil and modern humans. In these species, bite force evolved faster than expected from their size and ancestry, implicating the roles of external forces on the evolution of bite force .
  3. Sakamoto, M. & Venditti, C. 2018. Phylogenetic non-independence in rates of trait evolution. Biol. Lett. 14 (10): doi. 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0502
    • We demonstrate that phylogenetically inferred rates of phenotypic evolution are statistically non-independent (strong phylogenetic signal) and any downstream summaries or analyses should account for phylogenetic non-independence.
    • Lead author – conducted majority of work and analyses.
    • *This manuscript challenges established protocol and scientific practice, and as such has met strong opposition during review.
  4. Sakamoto, M., Venditti, C. & Benton, M.J. 2017. ‘Residual diversity estimates’ do not correct for sampling bias in palaeodiversity data. Methods Ecol Evol. 8: 453-459. doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.12666 [LINK]
    • Lead author – conducted majority of work and analyses
    • Blog post about this paper [LINK]
  5. Sakamoto, M., Benton, M.J. & Venditti, C. 2016. Dinosaurs in decline tens of millions of years before their final extinction. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 113: 5036-5040. [LINK]
  6. Diniz-Filho, J.A., Alves, D.M.C.C., Villalobos, F., Sakamoto, M., Brusatte, S.L., and Bini, L.M. 2015. Phylogenetic eigenvectors and non-stationarity in the evolution of theropod dinosaur skulls. J. Evol. Biol. 28: 1410-1416.
    • Co-developer of multivariate phylogenetic eigenvector regression
  7. Blake, M., Naish, D., Larson, G., King, C.L., Nowell, G., Sakamoto, M., Barnett, R. 2014. Multidisciplinary investigation of a ‘British big cat’: a lynx killed in southern England c. 1903. Hist. Biol. 26: 441-448.
    • I provided the quantitative identification of the ‘British big cat’ specimen using a multivariate classification analysis and data from a previous publication (Sakamoto and Ruta, 2012). My contribution was crucial in positive identification of this 'British big cat' specimen.
  8. Naish, D., Sakamoto, M., Hocking, P., and Sanchez, G. 2014. 'Mystery big cats' in the Peruvian Amazon: morphometrics solve a cryptozoological mystery. PeerJ 2: e291.
    • I collected morphometric data and conducted a quantitative identification of the ‘mystery big cats’ using a multivariate classification analysis and data from a previous publication (Sakamoto and Ruta, 2012).
  9. Diniz-Filho, J.A., Bini, L.M., Sakamoto, M., and Brusatte, S.L. 2014. Phylogenetic eigenvector regression in paleobiology. Revista Brasileira de Paleontologia 17: 107-122.
    • I supplied codes for my multivariate extension of the phylogenetic eigenvector regression developed in a previous publication (Sakamoto, 2010).
  10. Young, M.T., Andrade, M.B., Brusatte, S.L., Sakamoto, M. and Liston, J. 2013. The oldest known metriorhynchid super-predator: a new genus and species from the Middle Jurassic of England, with implications for serration and mandibular evolution in predacious clades. J. Syst. Palaeontol. 11: 475-513.
    • Developed novel biomechanical model for functional interpretation of optimal gape for biting
  11. Benton, M.J., Ruta, M., Dunhill, A.M., and Sakamoto, M. 2013. The first half of tetrapod evolution, sampling proxies, and fossil record quality, Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol. 372: 18-41. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.09.005
    • Conducted statistical analyses.
  12. Young, M.T., Brusatte, S.L., Andrade, M.B., Desojo, J.B., Beatty, B.L., Steel, L. Fernandez, M.S., Sakamoto, M., Ruize-Omeñaca, J.I., and Schoch, R.R. 2012. The cranial osteology and feeding ecology of the metriorhynchid crocodylomorph genera Dakosaurus and Plesiosuchus from the late Jurassic of Europe. PLoS ONE 7(9): e44985. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0044985
    • Developed novel biomechanical model for functional interpretation of optimal gape for biting
  13. Sakamoto, M. and Ruta, M. 2012. Convergence and Divergence in the Evolution of Cat Skulls: Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Morphological Diversity. PLoS ONE 7(7): e39752. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039752 [LINK]
    • Lead author – collected data from various institutions worldwide, conducted majority of analyses
  14. Brusatte, S. L., Sakamoto, M., Montanari, S., and Harcourt Smith, W. E. H. 2012. The evolution of cranial form and function in theropod dinosaurs: insight from geometric morphometrics. J. Evol. Biol. 25: 365-377.
    • Applied biomechanical model developed in Sakamoto (2010) and conducted multivariate statistical analyses
  15. Sakamoto, M., 2010. The evolution of biting performance in theropod dinosaurs. Proc. R. Soc. B 277: 3327-3333. [LINK]
    • Sole author
    • Modified and improved research stemming from my MSc thesis work
  16. Viscardi, P., Sakamoto, M., and Sigwart, J., 2010. How long is a piece of Strix?: Methods in measuring and measuring the measurers. Zoomorphology 129: 185-194.
    • Conceptualised study and devised experiments
  17. Sakamoto, M., Lloyd, G. T., and Benton, M. J. 2010. Phylogenetically structured variance in felid bite force: the role of phylogeny in the evolution of biting performance. J. Evol. Biol. 23: 463-478. [LINK]
    • Lead author – conducted majority of work
  18. Lloyd, G. T., Davis, K. E., Pisani, D., Tarver, J. E., Ruta, M., Sakamoto, M., Hone, D. W. E., Jennings, R. and Benton, M. J., 2008. Dinosaurs and the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution. Proc. R. Soc. B 275: 2483-2490.
    • Responsible for collecting data and inferring phylogenetic trees of the theropod part of the dinosaur tree of life
  19. Fukuda, R.I., Hayashi, A., Utsunomiya, A., Nukada, Y., Fukui, R., Itoh, K., Tezuka, K., Ohashi, K., Mizuno, K., Sakamoto, M., Hamanoue, M., and Tsuji, T. 2005. Alteration of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase cascade in the multilobulated nuclear formation of adult T cell leukemia lymphoma (ATLL). Proc. Natn. Acad, Sci. USA 102: 15213-15218.
    • Developed and established a monoclonal T-cell line stably expressing the target receptor protein. This cell line was crucial in the initial observation of the phenomenon described in the paper