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.