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TL;DR
This study used 3D morphometrics on shark jaws from 90 species to show that the highest rates of jaw shape evolution occur in reef and deep-water habitats, with deep-water species showing the most unique morphologies.
Communications Biology · 7 authors, 9 centres
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This study used 3D morphometrics on shark jaws from 90 species to show that the highest rates of jaw shape evolution occur in reef and deep-water habitats, with deep-water species showing the most unique morphologies.
This comparative phylogenetic study performed a 3D geometric morphometric analysis on computed tomography models of mandibles from 145 specimens representing 90 extant shark species. The researchers explored how rates of morphological evolution in the jaw correlate with habitat, size, diet, trophic level, and taxonomic order. The central findings indicate that morphological disparity and evolutionary rates are highest in reef and deep-water environments, with deep-water species displaying highly divergent jaw morphologies. The authors note a decoupling of diversity and disparity, where high disparity in reefs is spread across two major clades, while high disparity and evolutionary rates in deep water are coupled within the squalomorph clade. The study concludes that environmental heterogeneity, particularly in the offshore water column, is a key driver of morphological diversification, at least early in clade history. Limitations include the use of inter-landmark distances as rough proxies for functional traits and the potential bias from the chosen outgroup species.