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Evolutionary links between skull shape and body size suggest selective rather than allometric forces at work in a generalist group of lizards
  • Julio Rivera,
  • Jesualdo Fuentes-G.,
  • Emilia Martins
Julio Rivera
Arizona State University

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Jesualdo Fuentes-G.
Florida International University
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Emilia Martins
Arizona State University
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Abstract

The vertebrate skull is a complex structure, and studies of skull shape have yielded considerable insight into the evolutionary forces shaping specialized phenotypes in organisms as diverse as bats, frogs, and fossorial animals. Here, we used phylogenetic comparative analyses of CT scans of male skulls from 57 species of Sceloporus lizards to explore patterns of skull evolution in a group of generalist species. We found that most interspecific variation is in terms of skull and snout elongation such that some species have long, narrow snouts, whereas others exhibit more compact snouts and wide jaws. We also found strong links to overall body size, with evolutionary shifts to larger bodies being associated with more compact skulls and slower evolutionary rates. This is the opposite of the pattern in mammals in which larger-bodied species have longer snouts (likely reflecting developmental processes), and more like the pattern in frogs in which function has played a more important evolutionary role. Also, unlike other vertebrates, the jaw, anterior, and posterior parts of the Sceloporus skull are largely integrated, having evolved independently of each other only to a limited, albeit significant, degree. Our results emphasize the importance of body size in evolutionary shaping of the skull and suggest that additional studies of behavioral function in a generalist group are warranted.
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