Feeding habits of extant and fossil canids as determined by their skull geometry

Meloro, Carlo; Hudson, Andrew; Rook, Lorenzo

doi:10.1111/jzo.12196

Cited by 34 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Our results suggest that much of the cranial shape change is related to accommodating temporalis. These findings may help inform work on interpreting the feeding habits of extinct species (e.g., Wroe et al, ; Meloro et al, ). It should be noted, however, that our findings do not preclude the cranial shape changes also being biomechanically advantageous to the different trophic groups.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Scaling and Accommodation of Jaw Adductor Muscles in Canidae

Penrose

Kemp

Jeffery

2016

The Anatomical Record

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The masticatory apparatus amongst closely related carnivoran species raises intriguing questions about the interplay between allometry, function, and phylogeny in defining interspecific variations of cranial morphology. Here we describe the gross structure of the jaw adductor muscles of several species of canid, and then examine how the muscles are scaled across the range of body sizes, phylogenies, and trophic groups. We also consider how the muscles are accommodated on the skull, and how this is influenced by differences of endocranial size. Data were collected for a suite of morphological metrics, including body mass, endocranial volume, and muscle masses and we used geometric morphometric shape analysis to reveal associated form changes. We find that all jaw adductor muscles scale isometrically against body mass, regardless of phylogeny or trophic group, but that endocranial volume scales with negative allometry against body mass. These findings suggest that head shape is partly influenced by the need to house isometrically scaling muscles on a neurocranium scaling with negative allometry. Principal component analysis suggests that skull shape changes, such as the relatively wide zygomatic arches and large sagittal crests seen in species with higher body masses, allow the skull to accommodate a relative enlargement of the jaw adductors compared with the endocranium. Anat Rec, 299:951–966, 2016. © 2016 The Authors The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Scaling and Accommodation of Jaw Adductor Muscles in Canidae

Penrose

Kemp

Jeffery

2016

The Anatomical Record

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“…, ; Meloro et al. ; Kienle and Berta ) or between‐group convergence (Gaubert et al. ; Figueirido et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of morphological integration in the skull of Carnivora (Mammalia): Changes in Canidae lead to increased evolutionary potential of facial traits

2018

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Morphological integration refers to the fact that different phenotypic traits of organisms are not fully independent from each other, and tend to covary to different degrees. The covariation among traits is thought to reflect properties of the species' genetic architecture and thus can have an impact on evolutionary responses. Furthermore, if morphological integration changes along the history of a group, inferences of past selection regimes might be problematic. Here, we evaluated the stability and evolution of the morphological integration of skull traits in Carnivora by using evolutionary simulations and phylogenetic comparative methods. Our results show that carnivoran species are able to respond to natural selection in a very similar way. Our comparative analyses show that the phylogenetic signal for pattern of integration is lower than that observed for morphology (trait averages), and that integration was stable throughout the evolution of the group. That notwithstanding, Canidae differed from other families by having higher integration, evolvability, flexibility, and allometric coefficients on the facial region. These changes might have allowed canids to rapidly adapt to different food sources, helping to explain not only the phenotypic diversification of the family, but also why humans were able to generate such a great diversity of dog breeds through artificial selection.

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“…Unidentified individuals were included and categorised as unknown. Procrustes coordinates and LnCS were also used as independent variables but were less accurate and so were discarded (see also Meloro 2011 andMeloro et al 2015).…”

Section: Group Classification and Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does size matter for horny beetles? A geometric morphometric analysis of interspecific and intersexual size and shape variation in Colophon haughtoni Barnard, 1929, and C. kawaii Mizukami, 1997 (Coleoptera: Lucanidae)

et al. 2016

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Colophon is an understudied, rare and endangered stag beetle genus with all species endemic to isolated mountain peaks in South Africa's Western Cape. Geometric morphometrics was used to analyse intersexual and interspecific variation of size and shape in the mandibles, heads, pronota and elytra of two sympatric species: Colophon haughtoni and Colophon kawaii. All measured structures showed significant sexual dimorphism, which may result from male-male competition for females. Female mandibles were too small and featureless for analysis, but male Colophon beetles possess large, ornate mandibles for fighting. Males had significantly larger heads and pronota that demonstrated shape changes which may relate to resource diversion to the mandibles and their supporting structures. Females are indistinguishable across species, but males were accurately identified using mandibles, heads and pronota. Male C. kawaii were significantly larger than C. haughtoni for all structures. These results support the species status of C. kawaii, which is currently in doubt due to its hybridisation with C. haughtoni. We also demonstrate the value of geometric morphometrics as a tool which may aid Colophon conservation by providing biological and phylogenetic insights and enabling species identification.

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Feeding habits of extant and fossil canids as determined by their skull geometry

Cited by 34 publications

References 52 publications

Scaling and Accommodation of Jaw Adductor Muscles in Canidae

Scaling and Accommodation of Jaw Adductor Muscles in Canidae

Evolution of morphological integration in the skull of Carnivora (Mammalia): Changes in Canidae lead to increased evolutionary potential of facial traits

Does size matter for horny beetles? A geometric morphometric analysis of interspecific and intersexual size and shape variation in Colophon haughtoni Barnard, 1929, and C. kawaii Mizukami, 1997 (Coleoptera: Lucanidae)

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