Body mass and skull dimensions with fruit and seed sizes
Our analysis revealed significant covariations (Rpls=0.31; P=0.008) between morphology and seed and fruit size ingested. We can observe that body mass drives the covariation with ingested seed and fruit sizes (average and maximum length and width) (see Fig. 1).
Spearman correlation tests showed that skull dimensions are strongly correlated to body mass (R > 0.9; P <<<0.001). Consequently, we reran our 2BphyloPLS analyses using residual data. These analyses showed that the distance between molars, the canine overlap, the projected and effective jaw length, and jaw gape covaried significantly with seed sizes. Moreover, the coronoid height, jaw width and bicondylar width covaried with fruit sizes (Rpls=0.44; P=0.001) (see Fig. 2).
To explore whether the overall pattern held within each clade we repeated this phylogenetic 2B-PLS analysis between seed and fruit sizes and residual skull dimensions for primates only and did not find any significant covariation (Rpls = 0.42; P = 0.06). A similar 2B-PLS phylogenetic analysis was also performed for the Chiroptera group and showed significant covariations (Rpls=0.66; P=0.001). The distance between molars, the canine overlap, the projected and effective jaw length, and the jaw gape covaried with the dimensions of the ingested seeds. Also, the coronoid height, jaw width and bicondylar width covaried with fruit sizes (see Fig. 3). For the carnivores the 2B-PLS analysis did not reveal any covariation (Rpls=0.6; P=0.2) likely due to the small sample size.