eprintid: 10156794 rev_number: 7 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/15/67/94 datestamp: 2022-10-06 10:11:34 lastmod: 2022-10-06 10:11:34 status_changed: 2022-10-06 10:11:34 type: article metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Hennekam, Jesse J creators_name: Benson, Roger BJ creators_name: Herridge, Victoria L creators_name: Jeffery, Nathan creators_name: Torres-Roig, Enric creators_name: Alcover, Josep Antoni creators_name: Cox, Philip G title: Morphological divergence in giant fossil dormice ispublished: pub divisions: C08 divisions: F96 divisions: B02 divisions: UCL divisions: D09 keywords: Insular Gigantism; Geometric morphometrics; Allometry; Island rule; Leithia; Hypnomys note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions. abstract: Insular gigantism-evolutionary increases in body size from small-bodied mainland ancestors-is a conceptually significant, but poorly studied, evolutionary phenomenon. Gigantism is widespread on Mediterranean islands, particularly among fossil and extant dormice. These include an extant giant population of Eliomys quercinus on Formentera, the giant Balearic genus †Hypnomys and the exceptionally large †Leithia melitensis of Pleistocene Sicily. We quantified patterns of cranial and mandibular shape and their relationships to head size (allometry) among mainland and insular dormouse populations, asking to what extent the morphology of island giants is explained by allometry. We find that gigantism in dormice is not simply an extrapolation of the allometric trajectory of their mainland relatives. Instead, a large portion of their distinctive cranial and mandibular morphology resulted from the population- or species-specific evolutionary shape changes. Our findings suggest that body size increases in insular giant dormice were accompanied by the evolutionary divergence of feeding adaptations. This complements other evidence of ecological divergence in these taxa, which span predominantly faunivorous to herbivorous diets. Our findings suggest that insular gigantism involves context-dependent phenotypic modifications, underscoring the highly distinctive nature of island faunas. date: 2020-11-11 date_type: published publisher: The Royal Society official_url: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2085 oa_status: green full_text_type: other language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1980219 doi: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2085 medium: Print-Electronic lyricists_name: Cox, Philip lyricists_id: PCOXX75 actors_name: Cox, Philip actors_id: PCOXX75 actors_role: owner funding_acknowledgements: 677774 [European Research Council]; [Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad)/Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional]; [European Federation of Experimental Morphology (EFEM) 2018 Travel Grant]; [Hull York Medical School PhD Scholarship]; NE/F017839/2 [Natural Environment Research Council]; NE/F017936/1 [Natural Environment Research Council] full_text_status: public publication: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume: 287 number: 1938 article_number: 20202085 event_location: England citation: Hennekam, Jesse J; Benson, Roger BJ; Herridge, Victoria L; Jeffery, Nathan; Torres-Roig, Enric; Alcover, Josep Antoni; Cox, Philip G; (2020) Morphological divergence in giant fossil dormice. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences , 287 (1938) , Article 20202085. 10.1098/rspb.2020.2085 <https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2085>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10156794/1/Hennekam%20et%20al%20Proc%20B%20final.pdf