Run for your life, but bite for your rights? How interactions between natural and sexual selection shape functional morphology across habitats

Gomes, Verónica; Carretero, Miguel Á.; Kaliontzopoulou, Antigoni

doi:10.1007/s00114-017-1537-6

Cited by 11 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Contrary to other ecomorphological studies [5,6,11,17,28], body and head length were not the best predictors of bite force in our study. Instead, jaw out-lever and lower jaw length (a good proxy for head length [11]) were the best predictors of bite force (see also [29]).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

The Relationship Between Bite Force, Morphology, and Diet in Southern African Agamids.

Tan

Measey

Vanhooydonck

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: Many animals display morphological and behavioural adaptations to the habitats in which they live and the resources they exploit. Bite force is an important whole-organism performance trait that allows an increase in dietary breadth, the inclusion of novel prey in the diet, territory and predatory defence, and is important during mating in many lizards. Methods: Here, we study six species of southern African agamid lizards from three habitat types (ground-dwelling, rock-dwelling, and arboreal) to investigate whether habitat use constrains head morphology and bite performance. We further tested whether bite force and head morphology evolve as adaptations to diet by analysing a subset of these species for which diet data were available. Results: Overall, both jaw length and its out-lever are excellent predictors of bite performance across all six species. Rock-dwelling species have a flatter head relative to their size than other species, possibly as an adaptation for crevice use. However, even when correcting for jaw length and jaw out-lever length, rock-dwelling species bite harder than ground-dwelling species. Diet analyses demonstrate that body and head size are not directly related to diet, although greater in-levers for jaw closing (positively related to bite force) are associated to an increase of hard prey in the diet. Ground-dwelling species consume more ants than other species. Conclusions: Our results illustrate the role of head morphology in driving bite force and demonstrate how habitat use impacts head morphology but not bite force in these agamids. Although diet is associated with variation in head morphology it is only partially responsible for the observed differences in morphology and performance.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

The Relationship Between Bite Force, Morphology, and Diet in Southern African Agamids.

Tan

Measey

Vanhooydonck

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…However, there are no differences in head size between the Ashy-throated Parrotbill and allopatric populations of Vinous-throated Parrotbill (Jiangxi and Hebei), which provides further evidence for the hypothesis that differences in head size found in the Guizhou populations of the two species are probably the result of local adaptation and are not species-specific. A recent study revealed fast-evolving ecomorphological variation among populations of Lizards (Podarcis bocagei), where a direct association existed between head morphology and bite performance (Gomes et al 2018). We investigated differences in bill size and bite force among populations, but the results showed the opposite tendency.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Finally, variation in bite force among different populations of Vinous-throated Parrotbill may simply reflect geographic variation in food resources, because larger beaks and larger bite force should allow for exploitation of larger and more variable food size (e.g. Lefebvre et al 1997;Gomes et al 2018), although this assumption needs further study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bite force is another important ecological trait of animals that may be tightly linked to both type and magnitude of the ecological challenges such as food acquisition, mate choice through effects on vocalizations, competition for access to mates and physical defense against predators (Anderson et al 2008). A recent study revealed fast-evolving ecomorphological variation among populations of Lizard (Podarcis bocagei), where a direct association existed between head morphology and bite performance (Gomes et al 2018). Therefore, both brain size and bite force are important traits for successful dispersal and colonization of novel environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparison of head size and bite force in two sister species of parrotbills

Rao

Yang

et al. 2018

Avian Res

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Background: Brain size is associated with morphological evolution and behavioral flexibility because animals with large brain size tend to utilize new resources and colonize novel environments more successfully. Therefore, animals with larger brain size should possess larger distribution ranges. Brain size is strongly positively correlated with head size in birds, but also with prey size and vocalizations, because individuals with large heads eat large food items and produce high frequency calls. Methods: To test if there exists an association between head morphology and bite performance, we compared head size and bite force in two sympatric sister species of parrotbills, Ashy-throated Parrotbill (Paradoxornis alphonsianus) and Vinous-throated Parrotbill (P. webbianus), which both originated from the Himalayan area, but differ significantly in their distribution ranges. Results: In Guizhou, southwestern China, the Ashy-throated Parrotbill with a restricted distribution range had smaller heads whilst the Vinous-throated Parrotbill with a large distribution range had larger heads. However, there were no differences in head size between Ashy-throated Parrotbills and allopatric populations of Vinous-throated Parrotbills (Jiangxi and Hebei). Furthermore, the tendency of variation in bite force was opposite to that in head size with populations with larger head size having weaker bite force. Conclusions: We showed that there are no differences in head size between the Ashy-throated Parrotbill and allopatric populations of Vinous-throated Parrotbill, which provides evidence for the hypothesis that differences in head size in the Guizhou populations of two sister species are probably the result of local adaptation rather than species-specific. Our study has implications for avian dispersal and adaption related to head size such as diet ecology and vocalizations.

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“…Increases in 'bite performance' [89], which presumably includes bite force, improves territorial defence and therefore mating possibilities in lizards [89][90][91], rodents [92] and lemurs [51]. Cats are territorial and will fight other cats using claws and biting [93,94], and cats with greater bite forces could therefore be advantaged in physical confrontations.…”

Section: Other Considerations-bite Force and Fighting/territorial Matmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body Size and Bite Force of Stray and Feral Cats—Are Bigger or Older Cats Taking the Largest or More Difficult-to-Handle Prey?

Fleming

Crawford

Auckland

et al. 2020

Animals

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As carnivorans rely heavily on their head and jaws for prey capture and handling, skull morphology and bite force can therefore reflect their ability to take larger or more difficult-to-handle prey. For 568 feral and stray cats (Felis catus), we recorded their demographics (sex and age), source location (feral or stray) and morphological measures (body mass, body condition); we estimated potential bite force from skull measurements for n = 268 of these cats, and quantified diet composition from stomach contents for n = 358. We compared skull measurements to estimate their bite force and determine how it varied with sex, age, body mass, body condition. Body mass had the strongest influence of bite force. In our sample, males were 36.2% heavier and had 20.0% greater estimated bite force (206.2 ± 44.7 Newtons, n = 168) than females (171.9 ± 29.3 Newtons, n = 120). However, cat age was the strongest predictor of the size of prey that they had taken, with older cats taking larger prey. The predictive power of this relationship was poor though (r2 < 0.038, p < 0.003), because even small cats ate large prey and some of the largest cats ate small prey, such as invertebrates. Cats are opportunistic, generalist carnivores taking a broad range of prey. Their ability to handle larger prey increases as the cats grow, increasing their jaw strength, and improving their hunting skills, but even the smallest cats in our sample had tackled and consumed large and potentially ‘dangerous’ prey that would likely have put up a defence.

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Run for your life, but bite for your rights? How interactions between natural and sexual selection shape functional morphology across habitats

Cited by 11 publications

References 70 publications

The Relationship Between Bite Force, Morphology, and Diet in Southern African Agamids.

The Relationship Between Bite Force, Morphology, and Diet in Southern African Agamids.

Comparison of head size and bite force in two sister species of parrotbills

Body Size and Bite Force of Stray and Feral Cats—Are Bigger or Older Cats Taking the Largest or More Difficult-to-Handle Prey?

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