The remarkable convergence of skull shape in crocodilians and toothed whales
The striking resemblance of long-snouted aquatic mammals and reptiles has long been considered an example of morphological convergence, yet the true cause of this similarity remains untested. We addressed this deficit through three-dimensional morphometric analysis of the full diversity of crocodili...
Published in: | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rspb.2016.2348 2024-06-02T08:15:16+00:00 The remarkable convergence of skull shape in crocodilians and toothed whales McCurry, Matthew R. Evans, Alistair R. Fitzgerald, Erich M. G. Adams, Justin W. Clausen, Philip D. McHenry, Colin R. The linnean society of NSW National Museum of Natural History Museum Victoria Monash University Australian Research Council 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2348 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2016.2348 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2016.2348 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 284, issue 1850, page 20162348 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 journal-article 2017 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2348 2024-05-07T14:16:36Z The striking resemblance of long-snouted aquatic mammals and reptiles has long been considered an example of morphological convergence, yet the true cause of this similarity remains untested. We addressed this deficit through three-dimensional morphometric analysis of the full diversity of crocodilian and toothed whale (Odontoceti) skull shapes. Our focus on biomechanically important aspects of shape allowed us to overcome difficulties involved in comparing mammals and reptiles, which have fundamental differences in the number and position of skull bones. We examined whether diet, habitat and prey size correlated with skull shape using phylogenetically informed statistical procedures. Crocodilians and toothed whales have a similar range of skull shapes, varying from extremely short and broad to extremely elongate. This spectrum of shapes represented more of the total variation in our dataset than between phylogenetic groups. The most elongate species (river dolphins and gharials) are extremely convergent in skull shape, clustering outside of the range of the other taxa. Our results suggest the remarkable convergence between long-snouted river dolphins and gharials is driven by diet rather than physical factors intrinsic to riverine environments. Despite diverging approximately 288 million years ago, crocodilians and odontocetes have evolved a remarkably similar morphological solution to feeding on similar prey. Article in Journal/Newspaper toothed whale toothed whales The Royal Society Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284 1850 20162348 |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
The striking resemblance of long-snouted aquatic mammals and reptiles has long been considered an example of morphological convergence, yet the true cause of this similarity remains untested. We addressed this deficit through three-dimensional morphometric analysis of the full diversity of crocodilian and toothed whale (Odontoceti) skull shapes. Our focus on biomechanically important aspects of shape allowed us to overcome difficulties involved in comparing mammals and reptiles, which have fundamental differences in the number and position of skull bones. We examined whether diet, habitat and prey size correlated with skull shape using phylogenetically informed statistical procedures. Crocodilians and toothed whales have a similar range of skull shapes, varying from extremely short and broad to extremely elongate. This spectrum of shapes represented more of the total variation in our dataset than between phylogenetic groups. The most elongate species (river dolphins and gharials) are extremely convergent in skull shape, clustering outside of the range of the other taxa. Our results suggest the remarkable convergence between long-snouted river dolphins and gharials is driven by diet rather than physical factors intrinsic to riverine environments. Despite diverging approximately 288 million years ago, crocodilians and odontocetes have evolved a remarkably similar morphological solution to feeding on similar prey. |
author2 |
The linnean society of NSW National Museum of Natural History Museum Victoria Monash University Australian Research Council |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
McCurry, Matthew R. Evans, Alistair R. Fitzgerald, Erich M. G. Adams, Justin W. Clausen, Philip D. McHenry, Colin R. |
spellingShingle |
McCurry, Matthew R. Evans, Alistair R. Fitzgerald, Erich M. G. Adams, Justin W. Clausen, Philip D. McHenry, Colin R. The remarkable convergence of skull shape in crocodilians and toothed whales |
author_facet |
McCurry, Matthew R. Evans, Alistair R. Fitzgerald, Erich M. G. Adams, Justin W. Clausen, Philip D. McHenry, Colin R. |
author_sort |
McCurry, Matthew R. |
title |
The remarkable convergence of skull shape in crocodilians and toothed whales |
title_short |
The remarkable convergence of skull shape in crocodilians and toothed whales |
title_full |
The remarkable convergence of skull shape in crocodilians and toothed whales |
title_fullStr |
The remarkable convergence of skull shape in crocodilians and toothed whales |
title_full_unstemmed |
The remarkable convergence of skull shape in crocodilians and toothed whales |
title_sort |
remarkable convergence of skull shape in crocodilians and toothed whales |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2348 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2016.2348 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2016.2348 |
genre |
toothed whale toothed whales |
genre_facet |
toothed whale toothed whales |
op_source |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 284, issue 1850, page 20162348 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2348 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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284 |
container_issue |
1850 |
container_start_page |
20162348 |
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1800739387166687232 |