ArticleNature communications2024
Unexpectedly uneven distribution of functional trade-offs explains cranial morphological diversity in carnivores.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Experimental evidence for a suction-biting performance tradeoff in Mesoamerican cichlids.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Skull morphology of the extinct Tasmanian tiger suggests unique biting style.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Hybrid origin and phenotype evolution of the modern maize.Journal of integrative plant biology · 2026Review
- Functional trade-offs and innovation shape the adaptive landscape of aquatic mammal feeding.iScience · 2026Article
- Comparative Biologists and Aerospace Engineers: Important Allies to Explore the Secrets of Natural Flight.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- Functional Evolution and Modular Behaviour in the Carnivoran Mandible.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- Constraints and adaptations in crocodyliform skull evolution.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Sharper, straighter, stiffer, stronger: sexually dimorphic bill shape enhances male stabbing performance in the green hermit hummingbird (Phaethornis guy).The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Emergent network properties link phenotypic modules to ecomorphological divergence in carnivoran mammals.iScience · 2025Article
- Testing hypotheses of skull function with comparative finite element analysis: three methods reveal contrasting results.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- The Carnivoran Adaptive Landscape Reveals Trade-offs among Functional Traits in the Skull, Appendicular, and Axial Skeleton.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- RRmorph-a new R package to map phenotypic evolutionary rates and patterns on 3D meshes.Communications biology · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
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Abstract
Functional trade-offs can affect patterns of morphological and ecological evolution as well as the magnitude of morphological changes through evolutionary time. Using morpho-functional landscape modelling on the cranium of 132 carnivore species, we focused on the macroevolutionary effects of the trade-off between bite force and bite velocity. Here, we show that rates of evolution in form (morphology) are decoupled from rates of evolution in function. Further, we found theoretical morphologies optimising for velocity to be more diverse, while a much smaller phenotypic space was occupied by shapes optimising force. This pattern of differential representation of different functions in theoretical morphological space was highly correlated with patterns of actual morphological disparity. We hypothesise that many-to-one mapping of cranium shape on function may prevent the detection of direct relationships between form and function. As comparatively only few morphologies optimise bite force, species optimising this function may be less abundant because they are less likely to evolve. This, in turn, may explain why certain clades are less variable than others. Given the ubiquity of functional trade-offs in biological systems, these patterns may be general and may help to explain the unevenness of morphological and functional diversity across the tree of life.
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