Variability and correlations in carnivore crania and dentition

By Shai Meiri, T. Dayan, Daniel Simberloff. 2005

97 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Summary 1We analysed patterns of variability and correlations in skulls and teeth of a wide (>100 species; >17 000 specimens) sample of terrestrial carnivores. 2Within species, larger craniodental components vary less than do smaller ones. 3The higher variability of canines in comparison with lower carnassials probably reflects the low complexity of the former. 4Among species, however, trait variation is not size-related, suggesting that the higher intraspecific variability of small traits is not an artefact of measurement error. 5Correlations between the carnassial teeth are higher in carnivores feeding mainly on vertebrates than in those that eat mostly invertebrates or fruit, suggesting that the degree of functional integration between these teeth is under differing selective pressures. 6Correlations between the carnassials probably have a phylogenetic basis as well, with caniform carnivores having higher correlation coefficients than feliform ones.

Subfields: Ecology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Paleontology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9d2249e7d0d5cd57ee51761a18d4f61832ce2da8

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Citations in the corpus

The generality of the island rule reexamined (2006, methodology): “We examine only islands less than either 50,000, 10,000 or 5000 km2 and test for the effect of island area (data from Meiri et al., 2005a,b).”
What determines conformity to Bergmann's rule? (2007, methodology): “Both CBL and M 1 are highly precise measurements, and in adults are not affected by body condition (Gittleman & Van Valkenburgh, 1997; Meiri et al ., 2005a).”