The impact of digging on craniodental morphology and integration

The relationship between the form and function of the skull has been the subject of a great deal of research, much of which has concentrated on the impact of feeding on skull shape. However, there are a number of other behaviours that can influence craniodental morphology. Previous work has shown that subterranean rodents that use their incisors to dig (chisel-tooth digging) have a constrained cranial shape which is probably driven by a necessity to create high bite forces at wide gapes. Chisel-tooth digging rodents also have an upper incisor root that is displaced further back into the cranium compared with other rodents. This study quantified cranial shape and upper incisors of a phylogenetically diverse sample of rodents to determine if chisel-tooth digging rodents differ in craniodental morphology. The study showed that the crania of chisel-tooth digging rodents shared a similar place in morphospace, but a strong phylogenetic signal within the sample meant that this grouping was non...