RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Phenotypic Covariation And Morphological Diversification In The Ruminant Skull
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 017533
DO 10.1101/017533
A1 Annat Haber
YR 2015
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/04/04/017533.abstract
AB Differences between clades in their diversification patterns result from a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic factors. In this study I examined the role of intrinsic factors on the morphological diversification of ruminants, and in particular the differences between bovids and cervids. Using skull morphology, which embodies many of the adaptations that distinguish bovids and cervids, I examined 132 of the 200 extant ruminant species. As a proxy for intrinsic constraints I quantified different aspects of the phenotypic covariation structure within species, and compared them with the among-species divergence patterns of their clades, using phylogenetic comparative methods. My results show that bovids have dispersed into a wider range of directions in morphospace than cervids, and that their overall disparity is higher. Within both bovids and cervids, most species divergence is well aligned with their phenotypic covariance matrices, and those that are better aligned have diverged further away from their ancestor. Bovids’ greater disparity and wider range of dispersion is associated with a lower eccentricity of their within-population covariance matrices. These results are consistent with the role of intrinsic constraints in determining amount, range, and direction of dispersion, and demonstrate that intrinsic constraints can influence macroevolutionary patterns even as the covariance structure evolves.