Data from: Selection and constraints in the ecomorphological adaptive evolution of the skull of living Canidae (Carnivora, Mammalia)

The association between phenotype and ecology is essential for
understanding the environmental drivers of morphological evolution. This
is a particularly challenging task when dealing with complex traits such
as the skull, where multiple selective pressures are at play and evolution
might be constrained by ontogenetic and genetic factors. In the present
contribution I integrate morphometric tools, comparative methods and
quantitative genetics to investigate how ontogenetic constraints and
selection might have interacted during the evolution of the skull in
extant Canidae. The results confirm that the evolution of cranial
morphology was largely adaptive and molded by changes in diet composition.
While the investigation of the adaptive landscape reveals two main
Selective Lines of Least Resistance (one associated with size and one
associated with functional shape features), rates of evolution along size
were higher than those found for shape dimensions, suggesting the
influence of constraints on morphological evolution. Structural Modeling
Analyses revealed that size, which is the line of most genetic/phenotypic
variation, might have acted as a constraint, negatively impacting dietary
evolution. Constraints might have been overcome in the case of selection
for the consumption of large prey, by associating strong selection along
both size and shape directions. The results obtained here show that
microevolutionary constraints may have played a role in shaping
macroevolutionary patterns of morphological evolution.