Data from: Long-fuse evolution of carnivoran skeletal phenomes through the Cenozoic

Climatic change is hypothesized to promote phenotypic diversification.
While neontological analyses are often used to test this hypothesis,
extant data only capture time-averaged signals of surviving lineages. More
nuanced tests require paired and longitudinal climatic and organismal
data. Here, we developed the most comprehensive phenomic dataset of
pan-carnivorans to test hypotheses that Cenozoic climatic change
influenced the evolution of the cranial, appendicular, and axial skeleton.
We found support that a hierarchical progression of ecological
diversification across the Cenozoic significantly influenced the
establishment of modern carnivorans. Specifically, extinctions during the
Eocene-Oligocene Transition released crown carnivorans from a constrained
adaptive zone to interfamilial skeletal diversification. Intrafamilial
skeletal diversification did not occur for another 20 million years until
after the Mid-Miocene Climate Transition. Our work demonstrates the
essential role of macroevolutionary data from the fossil record for
revealing how major global climatic events steered the evolutionary
trajectories of modern skeletal phenomes.