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Cats and Dogs Down the Tree: The Tempo and Mode of Evolution in the Lower Carnassial of Fossil and Living Carnivora

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Abstract

Teeth are usually considered the primer to understand mammalian evolution. Their morphology is the result of the complex interplay between adaptation to food processing and somewhat fixed developmental programs. We analyse the morphometry of the first lower molar (m1 = lower carnassial) in 199 carnivore species (64 extant and 135 extinct) in order to clarify the tempo and mode of evolution of two different and possibly related traits, tooth size and tooth angular height. We applied a set of comparative methods and produced disparity through time plots by using four alternative phylogenetic trees. Three of them include fossil species, and were used in order to estimate what an effect the inclusion of fossil species has on the patterns we found for extant species. Our analyses on living species show that m1 size exhibits a weak phylogenetic signal, and that its variance occurs more within than among clades. The opposite applies to m1 angular height, which evolved in an adaptive radiation-like fashion, showing very strong phylogenetic signal and great among-clade variation. These results are thoroughly confirmed after the inclusion of fossil data. Major differences in m1 shape in Carnivora were clearly established early in their evolutionary history, probably as a result of rapid morphospace occupation after the clade radiation. Successive variation in tooth size allowed species to avoid potential overlap in feeding morphologies as a mechanism to limit interspecific competitive interaction within subclades.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to curators and staff of several museum institutions for kindly providing access to museum collections in their care: P. Jenkins, L. Tomsett, R. Portela-Miguez, D. Hills, J. J. Hooker, P. Brewer, A. Currant (British Museum of Natural History); B. Engesser, R. Kraft (Naturhistorischen Museum, Basel); E. Cioppi, L. Rook (Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia, Università di Firenze); P. Agnelli (Museo Zoologico ‘La Specola’, Firenze); G. Doria (Museo Civico di Storia Naturale ‘G. Doria’); M. Fornasiero (Museo di Paleontologia Università di Padova, Padova, Italy); R. Carlini (Museo Civico di Zoologia, Roma); M. Reilly, J. Liston (Huntherian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow); B. Sanchez, J. Morales, J. Cabarga, J. B. Rodríguez (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid); A. Arribas (Museo Geominero, Madrid); A. Kitchener (Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh); D. Goujet, P. Tassy and C. Signe (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris); E. Gilissen and W. Wendelen (Royal Museum for Cerntral Africa). G. Slater kindly provided images of Arctodus simus. P. Piras and F. Lucci shared with us their picture database of felid mandibles. A. Colamarco, S. Meiri and F. Carotenuto provided important insights to improve the quality of this ms. We are grateful to Benedikt Hallgrimsson and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful criticisms and comments. This research was supported by the European Community’s Programme ‘Structuring the European Research Area’ under Synthesys at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (ES-TAF 858) and Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (FR-TAF 1680) for the project ‘The evolution of feeding habits in extinct European carnivores’. The visit to Royal Museum for Central Africa was supported by the project “Eco-morphology of extant African carnivores” (BE-TAF 4901).

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  1. Hull York Medical School, The University of Hull, Loxley Building Cottingham Road, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK

    Carlo Meloro

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Largo San Marcellino, 80138, Napoli, Italy

    Pasquale Raia

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Meloro, C., Raia, P. Cats and Dogs Down the Tree: The Tempo and Mode of Evolution in the Lower Carnassial of Fossil and Living Carnivora. Evol Biol 37, 177–186 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-010-9094-3

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