ArticleNature communications2021
Size, microhabitat, and loss of larval feeding drive cranial diversification in frogs.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Constraint and Allometric Diversification in a Simplified Neck: Shape Evolution of the Atlas in Hyloidea (Anura).Biology · 2026Article
- New perspectives on head and neck allometry and ecomorphology in tetrapods.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Cranial modularity drives phenotypic diversification and adaptive radiation of Antarctic icefishes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The Evolution of Skull Shape in Boana faber Clade: Unraveling Heterochrony's Influence.Evolution & development · 2025Article
- Climatically Specialized Lineages of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, and its Likely Asian Origins.EcoHealth · 2025Article
- Allometry and phylogenetic divergence: Correspondence or incongruence?Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2025Article
- Article
- Evolutionary Links Between Skull Shape and Body Size Suggest Allometric Forces and Selection at Work in a Generalist Group of Lizards.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Ecological shifts underlie parallels between ontogenetic and evolutionary allometries in parrotfishes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Arctos: Community-driven innovations for managing natural and cultural history collections.PloS one · 2024Article
- Reed bamboos drive skull shape evolution in bush frogs of the Western Ghats, Peninsular India.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Developmental origin underlies evolutionary rate variation across the placental skull.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Emerging biological insights enabled by high-resolution 3D motion data: promises, perspectives and pitfalls.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
- Mammalian forelimb evolution is driven by uneven proximal-to-distal morphological diversity.eLife · 2023Article
- Host ecology drives frog skin microbiome diversity across ecotone in South-Central North America.Frontiers in microbiomes · 2023Article
- Emerging threat of ranavirus: prevalence, genetic diversity, and climatic drivers ofFrontiers in veterinary science · 2023Article
- Competition among small individuals hinders adaptive radiation despite ecological opportunity.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Complex macroevolutionary dynamics underly the evolution of the crocodyliform skull.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
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8 authors.
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Abstract
Habitat is one of the most important factors shaping organismal morphology, but it may vary across life history stages. Ontogenetic shifts in ecology may introduce antagonistic selection that constrains adult phenotype, particularly with ecologically distinct developmental phases such as the free-living, feeding larval stage of many frogs (Lissamphibia: Anura). We test the relative influences of developmental and ecological factors on the diversification of adult skull morphology with a detailed analysis of 15 individual cranial regions across 173 anuran species, representing every extant family. Skull size, adult microhabitat, larval feeding, and ossification timing are all significant factors shaping aspects of cranial evolution in frogs, with late-ossifying elements showing the greatest disparity and fastest evolutionary rates. Size and microhabitat show the strongest effects on cranial shape, and we identify a "large size-wide skull" pattern of anuran, and possibly amphibian, evolutionary allometry. Fossorial and aquatic microhabitats occupy distinct regions of morphospace and display fast evolution and high disparity. Taxa with and without feeding larvae do not notably differ in cranial morphology. However, loss of an actively feeding larval stage is associated with higher evolutionary rates and disparity, suggesting that functional pressures experienced earlier in ontogeny significantly impact adult morphological evolution.
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