Meeting Abstract

P1-59    Ecomorphology of the carnivoran skull Blackwell, EA*; Law, CJ; Curtis, AA; Dickinson, E; Hartstone-Rose, A; Santana, SE; Smith College; University of Washington; University of Washington; North Carolina State University; North Carolina State University; University of Washington eblackwell@smith.edu

Ecological traits such as diet and hunting strategy can have significant impacts on the evolution of skeletal morphology. The cranium and mandible, in particular, play key roles in feeding and are known to exhibit adaptations to different dietary strategies. In this study, we used 3D geometric morphometrics and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck modeling approaches to determine how different feeding ecologies are associated with the evolution of skull shape in the order Carnivora. The clade includes a wide diversity of diets ranging from hypercarnivory to herbivory and hunting strategies ranging from semi-fossorial to ambush. We found that mandibular shape is best described by differences in relative prey size among species. Cranial shape is best described by clade-based evolutionary shifts, indicating that the complexity and variation of the cranial landscape cannot be effectively captured by a priori ecological regimes. These results demonstrate how different processes can influence the evolution of the cranium and mandible independently. By improving our understanding of the sources of craniomandibular shape variation within Carnivora, we can better describe ecological drivers of evolution in the clade.