Data from: The remarkable convergence of skull shape in crocodilians and toothed whales

The striking resemblance of long-snouted aquatic mammals and reptiles has
long been considered an example of morphological convergence, yet the true
cause of this similarity remains untested. We addressed this deficit
through three-dimensional morphometric analysis of the full diversity of
crocodilian and toothed whale (Odontoceti) skull shapes. Our focus on
biomechanically important aspects of shape allowed us to overcome
difficulties involved in comparing mammals and reptiles, which have
fundamental differences in the number and position of skull bones. We
examined whether diet, habitat and prey size correlated with skull shape
using phylogenetically informed statistical procedures. Crocodilians and
toothed whales have a similar range of skull shapes, varying from
extremely short and broad to extremely elongate. This spectrum of shapes
represented more of the total variation in our dataset than between
phylogenetic groups. The most elongate species (river dolphins and
gharials) are extremely convergent in skull shape, clustering outside of
the range of the other taxa. Our results suggest the remarkable
convergence between long-snouted river dolphins and gharials is driven by
diet rather than physical factors intrinsic to riverine environments.
Despite diverging approximately 288 million years ago, crocodilians and
odontocetes have evolved a remarkably similar morphological solution to
feeding on similar prey.