Different evolutionary pathways lead to incomplete convergence of elongate body shapes in carnivoran mammals

Although convergence is often recognized as a ubiquitous feature across the Tree of Life, whether the underlying traits also exhibit similar evolutionary pathways towards convergent forms puzzles biologists. In carnivoran mammals, “elongate,” “slender,” and “long” are often used to describe and even to categorize mustelids (martens, polecats, and weasels), herpestids (mongooses), viverrids (civets and genets), and other carnivorans together. But just how similar these carnivorans are and whether there is convergence in the morphological component that contribute to elongation has never been assessed. Here, I found that these qualitatively-described elongate carnivorans exhibited incomplete convergence towards elongate bodies compared to other terrestrial carnivorans. In contrast, the morphological components underlying body shape variation do not exhibit convergence despite evidence that these components are more elongate in elongate carnivorans compared to non-elongate carnivorans. Fur...

尽管趋同演化已被证实为生命之树（Tree of Life）中广泛存在的演化特征，但控制这类趋同形态形成的核心性状是否同样遵循相似的演化路径，仍是困扰生物学家的未解问题。在食肉目（carnivoran）哺乳动物中，学界常以"修长（elongate）""纤细（slender）""修长（long）"这类定性表述来描述乃至归类鼬科（mustelids，涵盖貂类、臭鼬与鼬鼠）、獴科（herpestids，即獴类）、灵猫科（viverrids，涵盖灵猫与麝猫）及其他食肉目类群。然而，此类食肉目类群的形态相似性究竟达到何种程度，以及与身体修长性状相关的形态组分是否存在趋同演化，此前尚未得到系统性评估。本研究显示，相较于其他陆生食肉目类群，这些通过定性描述界定的修长型食肉目类群，仅呈现出不完全的身体修长趋同演化。与之形成鲜明对比的是，尽管有证据表明修长型食肉目类群的相关形态组分相较于非修长型类群更为修长，但驱动身体形态变异的核心形态组分并未表现出趋同演化。（原文后续内容截断）