Shape-Function Plot (IMAGE)

American Museum of Natural History

Shape-Function Plot

Caption

This image shows the skulls of the different species the researchers studied along with biomechanical profiles, which were made by mapping each animal's bite force against skull stiffness. They found that ancestry has a strong influence on the models, with closely related animals like leopards and mongooses grouping together, but also that predications about diet can be made based on the shape of the individual biomechanical profiles.

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© AMNH/Z.-J. Tseng

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