Evolution of the bovid cranium: morphological diversification under allometric constraint.

ABSTRACT: The role of environmental selection in generating novel morphology is often taken for granted, and morphology is generally assumed to be adaptive. Bovids (antelopes and relatives) are widely differentiated in their dietary and climatic preferences, and presumably their cranial morphologies are the result of adaptation to different environmental pressures. In order to test these ideas, we performed 3D geometric morphometric analyses on 141 crania representing 96 bovid species in order to assess the influence of both extrinsic (e.g. diet, habitat) and intrinsic (size, modularity) factors on cranial shape. Surprisingly, we find that bovid crania are highly clumped in morphospace, with a large number of ecologically disparate species occupying a very similar range of morphology clustered aroun

SUBMITTER: Bibi F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8770694 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature