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High-density geometric morphometric analysis of intraspecific cranial integration in the barred grass snake (Natrix helvetica) and green anole (Anolis carolinensis)

Tharakan, S; Shepherd, N; Gower, DJ; Stanley, EL; Felice, RN; Goswami, A; Watanabe, A; (2023) High-density geometric morphometric analysis of intraspecific cranial integration in the barred grass snake (Natrix helvetica) and green anole (Anolis carolinensis). Integrative Organismal Biology , 5 (1) , Article obad022. 10.1093/iob/obad022. Green open access

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Abstract

How do phenotypic associations intrinsic to an organism, such as developmental and mechanical processes, direct morphological evolution? Comparisons of intraspecific and clade-wide patterns of phenotypic covariation could inform how population-level trends ultimately dictate macroevolutionary changes. However, most studies have focused on analyzing integration and modularity either at macroevolutionary or intraspecific levels, without a shared analytical framework unifying these temporal scales. In this study, we investigate the intraspecific patterns of cranial integration in two squamate species: Natrix helvetica and Anolis carolinensis. We analyze their cranial integration patterns using the same high-density 3-D geometric morphometric approach used in a prior squamate-wide evolutionary study. Our results indicate that Natrix and Anolis exhibit shared intraspecific cranial integration patterns, with some differences, including a more integrated rostrum in the latter. Notably, these differences in intraspecific patterns correspond to their respective interspecific patterns in snakes and lizards, with few exceptions. These results suggest that interspecific patterns of cranial integration reflect intraspecific patterns. Hence, our study suggests that the phenotypic associations that direct morphological variation within species extend across micro- and macroevolutionary levels, bridging these two scales.

Type: Article
Title: High-density geometric morphometric analysis of intraspecific cranial integration in the barred grass snake (Natrix helvetica) and green anole (Anolis carolinensis)
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/iob/obad022
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obad022
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Cell and Developmental Biology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10172001
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