ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2019
Heterochronic shifts and conserved embryonic shape underlie crocodylian craniofacial disparity and convergence.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 70 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparative endocranial anatomy in the crocodylians Leidyosuchus canadensis and Stangerochampsa mccabei from the upper Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- A suture in time: The ontogeny of cranial suture morphology in mammals.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- Ontogenetic Changes in the Endocast and Endosseous Labyrinth of the Siamese Freshwater Crocodile (Zoological studies · 2026Article
- Structure and evolution of the embryonic cartilaginous skull of crocodilians.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Article
- Size, not phylogeny, explains the morphology of the endosseous labyrinth in the crown clade Crocodylia.Journal of anatomy · 2025Article
- Divergent patterns of cranial suture fusion in marsupial and placental mammals.Zoological journal of the Linnean Society · 2025Article
- Sugar assimilation underlying dietary evolution of Neotropical bats.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Dynamic evolutionary interplay between ontogenetic skull patterning and whole-head integration.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Ontogenetic variability of the intertympanic sinus distinguishes lineages within Crocodylia.Journal of anatomy · 2023Article
- Diversification of the ruminant skull along an evolutionary line of least resistance.Science advances · 2023Article
- A three-dimensional geometric morphometric analysis of the morphological transformation ofPeerJ · 2023Article
- Temperature-driven heterochrony as a main evolutionary response to climate changes in conodonts.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- The ontogeny of asymmetry in echolocating whales.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- An intermediate crocodylian linking two extant gharials from the Bronze Age of China and its human-induced extinction.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- The limits of convergence: the roles of phylogeny and dietary ecology in shaping non-avian amniote crania.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
- Complex macroevolutionary dynamics underly the evolution of the crocodyliform skull.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Paleogenomics illuminates the evolutionary history of the extinct Holocene "horned" crocodile of Madagascar, Voay robustus.Communications biology · 2021Article
- Ecological opportunity and the rise and fall of crocodylomorph evolutionary innovation.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The distinctive anatomy of the crocodylian skull is intimately linked with dietary ecology, resulting in repeated convergence on blunt- and slender-snouted ecomorphs. These evolutionary shifts depend upon modifications of the developmental processes which direct growth and morphogenesis. Here we examine the evolution of cranial ontogenetic trajectories to shed light on the mechanisms underlying convergent snout evolution. We use geometric morphometrics to quantify skeletogenesis in an evolutionary context and reconstruct ancestral patterns of ontogenetic allometry to understand the developmental drivers of craniofacial diversity within Crocodylia. Our analyses uncovered a conserved embryonic region of morphospace (CER) shared by all non-gavialid crocodylians regardless of their eventual adult ecomorph. This observation suggests the presence of conserved developmental processes during early development (before Ferguson stage 20) across most of Crocodylia. Ancestral state reconstruction of ontogenetic trajectories revealed heterochrony, developmental constraint, and developmental systems drift have all played essential roles in the evolution of ecomorphs. Based on these observations, we conclude that two separate, but interconnected, developmental programmes controlling craniofacial morphogenesis and growth enabled the evolutionary plasticity of skull shape in crocodylians.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.