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Abstract Crocodylomorpha, which includes living crocodylians and their extinct relatives, has a rich fossil record, extending back for more than 200 million years. Unlike modern semi‐aquatic crocodylians, extinct crocodylomorphs exhibited more varied lifestyles, ranging from marine to fully terrestrial forms. This ecological diversity was mirrored by a remarkable morphological disparity, particularly in terms of cranial morphology, which seems to be closely associated with ecological roles in the group. Here, I use geometric morphometrics to comprehensively investigate cranial shape variation and disparity in Crocodylomorpha. I quantitatively assess the relationship between cranial shape and ecology (i.e. terrestrial, aquatic, and semi‐aquatic lifestyles), as well as possible allometric shape changes. I also characterize patterns of cranial shape evolution and identify regime shifts. I found a strong link between shape and size, and a significant influence of ecology on the observed shape variation. Terrestrial taxa, particularly notosuchians, have significantly higher disparity, and shifts to more longirostrine regimes are associated with large‐bodied aquatic or semi‐aquatic species. This demonstrates an intricate relationship between cranial shape, body size and lifestyle in crocodylomorph evolutionary history. Additionally, disparity‐through‐time analyses were highly sensitive to different phylogenetic hypotheses, suggesting the description of overall patterns among distinct trees. For crocodylomorphs, most results agree in an early peak during the Early Jurassic and another in the middle of the Cretaceous, followed by nearly continuous decline until today. Since only crown‐group members survived through the Cenozoic, this decrease in disparity was likely the result of habitat loss, which narrowed down the range of crocodylomorph lifestyles.
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Ecomorphometric Analysis of Diversity in Cranial Shape of Pygopodid Geckos
Synopsis Pygopodids are elongate, functionally limbless geckos found throughout Australia. The clade presents low taxonomic diversity (∼45 spp.), but a variety of cranial morphologies, habitat use, and locomotor abilities that vary between and within genera. In order to assess potential relationships between cranial morphology and ecology, computed tomography scans of 29 species were used for 3D geometric morphometric analysis. A combination of 24 static landmarks and 20 sliding semi-landmarks were subjected to Generalized Procrustes Alignment. Disparity in cranial shape was visualized through Principal Component Analysis, and a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to test for an association between shape, habitat, and diet. A subset of 27 species with well-resolved phylogenetic relationships was used to generate a phylomorphospace and conduct phylogeny-corrected MANOVA. Similar analyses were done solely on Aprasia taxa to explore species-level variation. Most of the variation across pygopodids was described by principal component (PC) 1(54%: cranial roof width, parabasisphenoid, and occipital length), PC2 (12%: snout elongation and braincase width), and PC3 (6%: elongation and shape of the palate and rostrum). Without phylogenetic correction, both habitat and diet were significant influencers of variation in cranial morphology. However, in the phylogeny-corrected MANOVA, habitat remained weakly significant, but not diet, which can be explained by generic-level differences in ecology rather than among species. Our results demonstrate that at higher levels, phylogeny has a strong effect on morphology, but that influence may be due to small sample size when comparing genera. However, because some closely related taxa occupy distant regions of morphospace, diverging diets, and use of fossorial habitats may contribute to variation seen in these geckos.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1655610
- PAR ID:
- 10291186
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Integrative Organismal Biology
- Volume:
- 3
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2517-4843
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obab013
