@article{27202540205f4bf1a2190e2d812f9557,
title = "Unexpected bite-force conservatism as a stable performance foundation across mesoeucrocodylian historical diversity",
abstract = "Effective interpretation of historical selective regimes requires comprehensive in vivo performance evaluations and well-constrained ecomorphological proxies. The feeding apparatus is a frequent target of such evolutionary studies due to a direct relationship between feeding and survivorship, and the durability of craniodental elements in the fossil record. Among vertebrates, behaviors such as bite force have been central to evaluation of clade dynamics; yet, in the absence of detailed performance studies, such evaluations can misidentify potential selective factors and their roles. Here, we combine the results of a total-clade performance study with fossil-inclusive, phylogenetically informed methods to assess bite-force proxies throughout mesoeucrocodylian evolution. Although bite-force shifts were previously thought to respond to changing rostrodental selective regimes, we find body-size dependent conservation of performance proxies throughout the history of the clade, indicating stabilizing selection for bite-force potential. Such stasis reveals that mesoeucrocodylians with dietary ecologies as disparate as herbivory and hypercarnivory maintain similar bite-force-to-body-size relationships, a pattern which contrasts the precept that vertebrate bite forces should vary most strongly by diet. Furthermore, it may signal that bite-force conservation supported mesoeucrocodylian craniodental disparity by providing a stable performance foundation for the exploration of novel ecomorphospace.",
keywords = "Crocodylia, Notosuchia, ecomorphology, performance, stabilizing selection",
author = "Gignac, {Paul M.} and Smaers, {Jeroen B.} and O'Brien, {Haley D.}",
note = "Funding Information: For access to living specimens throughout previous in vivo work, we thank licensed Florida trappers T. Hunter (deceased) and M. Hunter; R. Elsey and the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge (Grand Chenier, LA), the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and B. Demes and T. Zimmerman at Stony Brook University. For access to collections, we thank J. Cundiff, G. Erickson, D. Krause, P. Makovicky, J. McGuire, J. M{\"u}ller, M. Norell, D. Schwarz-Wings, and L. Steel. R. Felice, A. Herrel, G. Lloyd, K. Melstrom, G. O'Brien, P. O'Connor, S. Santana, and A. Turner provided thoughtful feedback. Valuable analytical skills were learned through the Linnaean Society Radiation and Extinction Workshop (Fall, 2014) and the Fossilworks Workshop (J. Alroy, Macquarie University). A special thank you also to our reviewers, whose feedback was important to improving this manuscript, as well as to E. Schachner and C. Holliday for organizing and inviting us to participate in this special edition of The Anatomical Record. This work was funded by the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University, and the National Science Foundation (J.B.S., P.M.G.). Funding Information: For access to living specimens throughout previous work, we thank licensed Florida trappers T. Hunter (deceased) and M. Hunter; R. Elsey and the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge (Grand Chenier, LA), the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and B. Demes and T. Zimmerman at Stony Brook University. For access to collections, we thank J. Cundiff, G. Erickson, D. Krause, P. Makovicky, J. McGuire, J. M{\"u}ller, M. Norell, D. Schwarz‐Wings, and L. Steel. R. Felice, A. Herrel, G. Lloyd, K. Melstrom, G. O'Brien, P. O'Connor, S. Santana, and A. Turner provided thoughtful feedback. Valuable analytical skills were learned through the Linnaean Society Radiation and Extinction Workshop (Fall, 2014) and the Fossilworks Workshop (J. Alroy, Macquarie University). A special thank you also to our reviewers, whose feedback was important to improving this manuscript, as well as to E. Schachner and C. Holliday for organizing and inviting us to participate in this special edition of . This work was funded by the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University, and the National Science Foundation (J.B.S., P.M.G.). in vivo The Anatomical Record Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 American Association for Anatomy.",
year = "2022",
month = oct,
doi = "10.1002/ar.24768",
language = "English",
volume = "305",
pages = "2823--2837",
journal = "Anatomical Record",
issn = "1932-8486",
publisher = "John Wiley and Sons Inc.",
number = "10",
}