Journal
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 369, Issue 1649, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0057
Keywords
dental morphology; evolutionary trend; evolutionary constraint; morphological integration; Lower Pleistocene; scaling relationship
Categories
Funding
- Norwegian Research Council [196434/V40]
- Fundacion Atapuerca
- Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [CGL2012-38358, CGL2012-38434-C03-01, BP2012-CGL38358, CGL 2009-12703-C03-03]
- Generalitat de Catalunya [SGR 2009-324]
- University of Zaragoza, Gobierno de Aragon, European Social Fund
- ICREA Funding Source: Custom
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The allometric-constraint hypothesis states that evolutionary divergence of morphological traits is restricted by integrated growth regulation. In this study, we test this hypothesis on a time-calibrated and well-documented palaeontological sequence of dental measurements on the Pleistocene arvicoline rodent species Mimomys savini from the Iberian Peninsula. Based on 507 specimens representing nine populations regularly spaced over 600 000 years, we compare static (within-population) and evolutionary (among-population) allometric slopes between the width and the length of the first lower molar. We find that the static allometric slope remains evolutionary stable and predicts the evolutionary allometry quite well. These results support the hypothesis that the macroevolutionary divergence of molar traits is constrained by static allometric relationships.
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