Lepidosaur bite-force data

Isip, Justin E; Jones, Marc Eh; Cooper, Natalie

doi:10.5519/dkrhpxjh

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…Supplemental figures, tables and results are provided in the electronic supplementary material [65]. Data are available from the NHM Data Portal [47]. R code is available from GitHub (https://github.com/nhcooper123/lepidosaur-biteforce) and Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5838511).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Clade-wide variation in bite-force performance is determined primarily by size, not ecology

2022

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Performance traits are tightly linked to the fitness of organisms. However, because studies of variation in performance traits generally focus on just one or several closely related species, we are unable to draw broader conclusions about how and why these traits vary across clades. One important performance trait related to many aspects of an animal’s life history is bite-force. Here, we use a clade-wide phylogenetic comparative approach to investigate relationships between size, head dimensions and bite-force among lizards and tuatara (lepidosaurs), using the largest bite-force dataset collated to date for any taxonomic group. We test four predictions: that bite-force will be greater in larger species, and for a given body size, bite-force will be greatest in species with acrodont tooth attachment, herbivorous diets, and non-burrowing habits. We show that bite-force is strongly related to body and head size across lepidosaurs and, as predicted, larger species have the greatest bite-forces. Contrary to our other predictions, tooth attachment, diet and habit have little predictive power when accounting for size. Herbivores bite more forcefully simply because they are larger. Our results also highlight priorities for future sampling to further enhance our understanding of broader evolutionary patterns.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, we also created datasets that included only females or only males. All raw and cleaned data are available on the NHM Data Portal (https://doi.org/10.5519/dkrhpxjh [47]).…”

Section: (Ii) Ecological and Phylogenetic Datamentioning

confidence: 99%