The evolution of cranial form and function in theropod dinosaurs: insights from geometric morphometrics

Brusatte, S. L., Sakamoto, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6447-406X, Montanari, S. and Harcourt Smith, W. E. H. (2012) The evolution of cranial form and function in theropod dinosaurs: insights from geometric morphometrics. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 25 (2). pp. 365-377. ISSN 1010-061X doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02427.x

Abstract/Summary

Theropod dinosaurs, an iconic clade of fossil species including Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor, developed a great diversity of body size, skull form and feeding habits over their 160+ million year evolutionary history. Here, we utilize geometric morphometrics to study broad patterns in theropod skull shape variation and compare the distribution of taxa in cranial morphospace (form) to both phylogeny and quantitative metrics of biting behaviour (function). We find that theropod skulls primarily differ in relative anteroposterior length and snout depth and to a lesser extent in orbit size and depth of the cheek region, and oviraptorosaurs deviate most strongly from the “typical” and ancestral theropod morphologies. Noncarnivorous taxa generally fall out in distinct regions of morphospace and exhibit greater overall disparity than carnivorous taxa, whereas large‐bodied carnivores independently converge on the same region of morphospace. The distribution of taxa in morphospace is strongly correlated with phylogeny but only weakly correlated with functional biting behaviour. These results imply that phylogeny, not biting function, was the major determinant of theropod skull shape.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/117250
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Publisher	Wiley-Blackwell
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item