Mandibular form and function is more disparate in amniotes than in non-amniote tetrapods from the late Palaeozoic.

ABSTRACT: Terrestrial tetrapods originated during the Middle Devonian, and the group rapidly diversified throughout the subsequent Carboniferous and Permian periods. Feeding in air rather than water is expected to require changes to tetrapod mandibular form and function. Previous biomechanical studies on jaw evolution, however, found that the increase in functional disparity lagged behind terrestrialisation by approximately 70 Myr, coinciding with the origin of amniotes and herbivory. We expand on a previous dataset composed primarily of non-amniote tetrapods to identify the drivers of this diversification, including representatives of all major amniote clades from the Permo-Carboniferous. First, we measured nine biomechanical traits from 111 tetrapod jaws in medial view. Second, we performed an Ell

SUBMITTER: Ponstein J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12664332 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature