Digest: Taxonomically inclusive and quantitative tests for convergence.

Abstract

How common is morphological convergence, and can the cause of convergence be traced to simple ecological categories like diet? Tamagnini etal. use phylogenetic comparative methods and simple morphological data from a large number of Carnivora taxa to investigate whether diet causes convergence in their craniomandibular complex. They find that convergence is less prevalent than expected and that this outcome is likely caused by a complex interplay between biomechanics, ecology, and morphology.