title: Walk the line: 600000 years of molar evolution constrained by allometry in the fossil rodent Mimomys savini.
abstract: The allometric-constraint hypothesis states that evolutionary divergence of morphological traits is restricted by integrated growth regulation. In this study, we test this hypothesis on a time-calibrated and well-documented palaeontological sequence of dental measurements on the Pleistocene arvicoline rodent species Mimomys savini from the Iberian Peninsula. Based on 507 specimens representing nine populations regularly spaced over 600 000 years, we compare static (within-population) and evolutionary (among-population) allometric slopes between the width and the length of the first lower molar. We find that the static allometric slope remains evolutionary stable and predicts the evolutionary allometry quite well. These results support the hypothesis that the macroevolutionary divergence of molar traits is constrained by static allometric relationships.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7419 Trondheim, Norway cyril.firmat@ntnu.no.
authors.forename: Cyril
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Firmat
authors.affiliation: IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, C/Escorxador s/n, Tarragona 3003, Spain Area de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, Tarragona 43002, Spain.
authors.forename: Iván
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lozano-Fernández
authors.affiliation: ICREA. IPHES, Institut català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social. Universitat Rovira i Virgili, c/Marcel·lí Domingo s/n (Edifici W3), Campus Sescelades, Tarragona 43007, Spain.
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Agustí
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7419 Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Geir H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Bolstad
authors.affiliation: Aragosaurus-IUCA, Dpto. Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Zaragoza, Pedro Cerbuna, 12, Zaragoza 50009, Spain.
authors.forename: Gloria
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cuenca-Bescós
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo, 0316 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Thomas F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7419 Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pélabon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005580:Fossils; D005828:Genetics, Population; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008954:Models, Biological; D008963:Molar / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development; D010163:Paleontology; D010641:Phenotype; D012377:Rodentia / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D013030:Spain
keywords: Lower Pleistocene; dental morphology; evolutionary constraint; evolutionary trend; morphological integration; scaling relationship