Evidence of strong stabilizing effects on the evolution of boreoeutherian (Mammalia) dental proportions.
Date
2019-07
Authors
Monson, Tesla A.
Boisserie, Jean-Renaud
Brasil, Marianne F.
Clay, Selene M.
Dvoretzky, Rena
Ravindramurthy, Shruti
Schmitt, Christopher A.
Souron, Antoine
Takenaka, Risa
Ungar, Peter S.
Version
Published version
OA Version
Citation
Tesla A Monson, Jean-Renaud Boisserie, Marianne F Brasil, Selene M Clay, Rena Dvoretzky, Shruti Ravindramurthy, Christopher A Schmitt, Antoine Souron, Risa Takenaka, Peter S Ungar, Sunwoo Yoo, Michael Zhou, Madeleine E Zuercher, Leslea J Hlusko. 2019. "Evidence of strong stabilizing effects on the evolution of boreoeutherian (Mammalia) dental proportions.." Ecol Evol, Volume 9, Issue 13, pp. 7597 - 7612. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5309
Abstract
The dentition is an extremely important organ in mammals with variation in timing and sequence of eruption, crown morphology, and tooth size enabling a range of behavioral, dietary, and functional adaptations across the class. Within this suite of variable mammalian dental phenotypes, relative sizes of teeth reflect variation in the underlying genetic and developmental mechanisms. Two ratios of postcanine tooth lengths capture the relative size of premolars to molars (premolar-molar module, PMM), and among the three molars (molar module component, MMC), and are known to be heritable, independent of body size, and to vary significantly across primates. Here, we explore how these dental traits vary across mammals more broadly, focusing on terrestrial taxa in the clade of Boreoeutheria (Euarchontoglires and Laurasiatheria). We measured the postcanine teeth of N = 1,523 boreoeutherian mammals spanning six orders, 14 families, 36 genera, and 49 species to test hypotheses about associations between dental proportions and phylogenetic relatedness, diet, and life history in mammals. Boreoeutherian postcanine dental proportions sampled in this study carry conserved phylogenetic signal and are not associated with variation in diet. The incorporation of paleontological data provides further evidence that dental proportions may be slower to change than is dietary specialization. These results have implications for our understanding of dental variation and dietary adaptation in mammals.
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License
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2019 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.