Landmark data for copy-cat evolution: Divergence and Convergence within and between cat and dog breeds

This dataset contains the three-dimensional measurements of skull morphology from physical skulls obtained from natural history collections, and CT and micro-CT Scans obtained from veterinary institutions and from Morphosource (see Dataset S2 for details on sources) for 1,810 specimens: 148 domestic cats (Felis catus), 677 domestic dogs (Canis familiaris), 69 wildcats (Felis silvestris from all recognized subspecies except F. silvestris bieti [i.e., F. s. cafra, F. s. libyca, F. s ornata, and F. s. silvestris]), 287 wolves (Canis lupus), an additional 185 specimens from 23 species within Canidae representing 68% of all extant species, an additional 350 members of 33 species Felidae representing 85% of all extant species, and an additional 94 specimens of 93 species of Carnivora representing 93 out of 131 extant genera. These data were obtained from museum collections and veterinary schools.

Three-dimensional coordinates for 47 osteological landmarks (11 median and 36 paired, SI Appendix, Fig. S2 and Table S1) were measured on the dorsal and ventral surfaces of physical specimens and CT scans. The dorsal and ventral coordinate configurations from physical specimens were combined into one set of coordinates using a least-squares fit (rotation and translation only) of four matching landmarks.