Marcy, A.E., Mitchell, D.R., Guillerme, T. orcid.org/0000-0003-4325-1275 et al. (2 more authors) (2024) Beyond CREA: evolutionary patterns of non‐allometric shape variation and divergence in a highly allometric clade of murine rodents. Ecology and Evolution, 14 (7). ISSN 2045-7758
Abstract
The shared functions of the skull are thought to result in common evolutionary patterns in mammalian cranial shape. Craniofacial evolutionary allometry (CREA) is a particularly prominent pattern where larger species display proportionally elongate facial skeletons and smaller braincases. It was recently proposed that CREA arises from biomechanical effects of cranial scaling when diets are similar. Thus, deviations from CREA should occur with changes in cranial biomechanics, for example due to dietary change. Here, we test this using 3D geometric morphometric analysis in a dataset of Australian murine crania, which are highly allometric. We contrast allometric and non‐allometric variation in the cranium by comparing evolutionary mode, allometry, ordinations, as well as allometry, integration, and modularity in functional modules. We found evidence of stabilising selection in allometry‐containing and size‐free shape, and substantial non‐allometric variation aligned with dietary specialisation in parallel with CREA. Integration among cranial modules was higher, and modularity lower, with size included, but integration between rostrum and cranial vault, which are involved in the CREA pattern, dropped dramatically after size removal. Our results thus support the hypothesis that CREA is a composite arising from selection on cranial function, with substantial non‐allometric shape variation occurring alongside CREA where dietary specialisation impacts selection on gnawing function. This emphasises the need to research mammalian cranial evolution in the context of allometric and non‐allometric selection on biomechanical function.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | allometry; CREA; geometric morphometrics; integration; modularity; Muridae; stabilising selection |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 04 Jul 2024 10:13 |
Last Modified: | 04 Jul 2024 10:13 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11588 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/ece3.11588 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:214218 |