The shape of the mandibular corpus in large fissiped carnivores: allometry, function and phylogeny
By C. Meloro, Pasquale Raia, Paolo Piras, C. Barbera, P. O’Higgins. 2008
90 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Mandibular corpus shape variability was investigated in seven families of both extant and extinct mammalian carnivores using two-dimensional landmarks and geometric morphometric methods. The landmark configuration represents the position of the fourth premolar relative to the canine and the lower carnassial, plus related features of the corpus profile. Between families, the corpus manifests differences in shape and allometry. Additionally, families differ in the relationship between the angle α (a carnassial trait proxy for hypo-hypercarnivory) and mandibular corpus shape. When phylogenetic relatedness is taken into account using five different phylogenies as covariates, interspecific scaling is still present but the relationship between α and corpus shape is no longer significant. This suggests that the allometric relationship reflects the physical constraints of mastication, resulting in relatively increased corpus depth with higher loads. In contrast, the angle α is related to corpus curvature and this relationship is phylogenetically constrained by the reduction of the molar battery in large feliforms early during the carnivore radiation. In summary, large fissiped carnivores show extensive functional convergence in mandibular corpus shape although the evolutionary routes leading to such functional convergence are different. © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 154, 832–845.
Subfields: Ecology, Geometry and Topology, Paleontology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6a77a0b6739ba055dac0dce02c4f596f7c5c60f0
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In Ecology
In Paleontology
- S. Ros-Montoya
- M. Espigares
- J. Pérez-Claros
- B. Martínez-Navarro
- B. Figueirido
- P. Palmqvist
- V. Torregrosa
Citations in the corpus
- The giant hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris: Modelling the bone-cracking behavior of an extinct carnivore (2011, methodology): “The configuration of landmarks used in this study allows describing the depth of the mandibular corpus in relation to the development of the canine, the fourth premolar and the first molar, teeth which dimensions are associated with the feeding adaptations of carnivores (Biknevicius and Ruff, 1992; ”