Data from: Go big or go fish: morphological specializations in carnivorous bats

Specialized carnivory is relatively uncommon across mammals, and bats
constitute one of the few groups in which this diet has evolved multiple
times. While size and morphological adaptations for carnivory have been
identified in other taxa, it is unclear what phenotypic traits
characterize the relatively recent evolution of carnivory in bats. To
address this gap, we apply geometric morphometric and phylogenetic
comparative analyses to elucidate which characters are associated with
ecological divergence of carnivorous bats from insectivorous ancestors,
and if there is morphological convergence among independent origins of
carnivory within bats, and with other carnivorous mammals.We find that
carnivorous bats are larger and converged to occupy a subset of the
insectivorous morphospace, characterized by skull shapes that enhance bite
force at relatively wide gapes. Piscivorous bats are morphologically
distinct, with cranial shapes that enable high bite force at narrow gapes,
which is necessary for processing fish prey. All animal-eating species
exhibit positive allometry in rostrum elongation with respect to skull
size, which could allow larger bats to take relatively larger prey. The
skull shapes of carnivorous bats share similarities with generalized
carnivorans, but tend to be more suited for increased bite force
production at the expense of gape, when compared with specialized
carnivorans.