Topographically distinct adaptive landscapes for teeth, skeletons, and size explain the adaptive radiation of Carnivora (Mammalia).

ABSTRACT: Models of adaptive radiation were originally developed to explain the early, rapid appearance of distinct modes of life within diversifying clades. Phylogenetic tests of this hypothesis have yielded limited support for temporally declining rates of phenotypic evolution across diverse clades, but the concept of an adaptive landscape that links form to fitness, while also crucial to these models, has received more limited attention. Using methods that assess the temporal accumulation of morphological variation and estimate the topography of the underlying adaptive landscape, I found evidence of an early partitioning of mandibulo-dental morphological variation in Carnivora (Mammalia) that occurs on an adaptive landscape with multiple peaks, consistent with classic ideas about adaptive radiati

SUBMITTER: Slater GJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9546082 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature