Ariel E Marcy

University of Nebraska at Lincoln | NU · Department of Biological Sciences

Species ranges are mediated by physiology, environmental factors, and competition with other organisms. The allopatric distribution of five species of northern Californian pocket gophers (Thomomys spp.) is hypothesized to result from competitive exclusion. The five species in this environmentally heterogeneous region separate into two subgenera, Th...

Among vertebrates, placental mammals are particularly variable in the covariance between cranial shape and body size (allometry), with rodents being a major exception. Australian murid rodents allow an assessment of the cause of this anomaly because they radiated on an ecologically diverse continent notably lacking other terrestrial placentals. Her...

Multidimensional analysis of traits are now common in ecology and evolution and are based on trait spaces in which each dimension summarizes the observed trait combination (a morphospace or an ecospace). Observations of interest will typically occupy a subset of this space, and researchers will calculate one or more measures to quantify how organis...

Among vertebrates, placental mammals are particularly variable in the covariance between their cranial shapes and body size (allometry), with the notable exception of rodents. Australian murid rodents present an opportunity to assess the cause of this anomaly because they radiated on an ecologically diverse continent unique for lacking other terres...

Multidimensional analysis of traits are now a common toolkit in ecology and evolution and are based on trait-spaces in which each dimension summarise the observed trait combination (a morphospace or an ecospace). Observations of interest will typically occupy a subset of this trait-space, and researchers will apply one or more metrics to quantify t...

Background Advances in 3D shape capture technology have made powerful shape analyses, such as geometric morphometrics, more feasible. While the highly accurate micro-computed tomography (µCT) scanners have been the “gold standard,” recent improvements in 3D surface scanners may make this technology a faster, portable, and cost-effective alternative...

Supplementary methods for optimal use of an HD109 3D surface scanner for small biological specimens This standard operating procedures outlines the best practices for 3D scanning, which we chose after extensive trial and error.

Raw landmark coordinates produced by digitizing 3D mesh files in Viewbox This is the raw format of our shape data produced by exporting the landmark coordinates once landmarking in Viewbox was finished.

Sex identification for specimens in intra-specific analyses This table is nearly identical to Table S1 except that the “Catalogue Number” column heading is shortened to “CatNum” to ease the merging datasets. This dataset is necessary to perform the intra-specific analyses presented here.

Table of digitized points with bilateral symmetry for symmetric shape analysis of fixed landmark-only datasets This table only includes the points which are fixed landmarks and have bilateral symmetry (i.e., a symmetric pair with one point on the right side of the skull and the other point in the corresponding symmetric location on the left side of...

Catalogue numbers and sex information for all specimens Catalogue numbers are searchable in the Queensland Museum database, which also provided the sex information for the 19 delicate mouse (Pseudomys delicatulus) specimens we used in our study.

Landmark, semi-landmark curve, and patch point names and definitions There are a total of 289 points used to capture crania shape. 58 are fixed landmarks (LM): the first 12 are centrally located and the remaining 46 come in right and left pairs (right is odd, left is even in the table numbering system). 145 points were placed along 39 curves as sem...

R script for analyses presented in this study This file should be copied into R, Rstudio, or similar. All datasets required to run the analyses are contained in the supplementary information. Some analyses must be run in MorphoJ, an outside software freely available at: http://www.flywings.org.uk/morphoj_page.htm.

Table of digitized points with bilateral symmetry for symmetric shape analysis for datasets of only fixed landmarks and semi-landmark curve points This table only includes the fixed landmarks and semi-landmark curve points which have bilateral symmetry (i.e., a symmetric pair with one point on the right side of the skull and the other point in the...

Table of all digitized points with bilateral symmetry for symmetric shape analysis This table only includes the points which have bilateral symmetry (i.e., a symmetric pair with one point on the right side of the skull and the other point in the corresponding symmetric location on the left side of the skull). The numbers in the “Right” column are l...

Definitions of semilandmarks as required for sliding in geomorph during Procrustes superimposition This table simply encodes the two neighboring points that a semi-landmark can slide between. Point numbers can be related to their position on the cranium using Fig. 3 or Table S2. This table is necessary to treat sliding semi-landmarks correcting dur...

Background. Advances in three-dimensional (3D) shape capture technology have made powerful shape analyses, such as geometric morphometrics, more feasible. While the highly accurate micro-computed tomography (μCT) scanners have been the “gold standard,” recent improvements in 3D surface scanner resolution may make this technology a faster, more port...

Background. Advances in three-dimensional (3D) shape capture technology have made powerful shape analyses, such as geometric morphometrics, more feasible. While the highly accurate micro-computed tomography (μCT) scanners have been the “gold standard,” recent improvements in 3D surface scanner resolution may make this technology a faster, more port...

Marsupials display far less forelimb diversity than placentals, possibly because of the laborious forelimb-powered climb to the pouch performed by most marsupial neonates. This is thought to result in stronger morphological integration (i.e., higher co-variance) within the marsupial forelimb skeleton, and lower integration between marsupial fore- a...

Background High morphological diversity can occur in closely related animals when selection favors morphologies that are subject to intrinsic biological constraints. A good example is subterranean rodents of the genus Thomomys, one of the most taxonomically and morphologically diverse mammalian genera. Highly procumbent, tooth-digging rodent skull...

Evolutionary trees are one of the most important representations of biological knowledge. Scientists frequently use them to compactly convey information and to present new taxa in context with well-known relatives. Students approaching evolutionary trees for the first time, however, often find them difficult to understand because the information is...

Evolutionary trees are one of the most important representations of biological knowledge. Scientists frequently use them to compactly convey information and to present new taxa in context with well-known relatives. Students approaching evolutionary trees for the first time, however, often find them difficult to understand because the information is...

Similar to Table 4 but reporting the 6.5 km grid dataset. Soil bin Chi-squared values (in regular font) compare the expected and observed values for one subgenus in one soil bin. Values above 3.50 reflect a significant portion of the 5.99 critical value (CV) required for significance in the subgenus Chi square test. The subgenus Chi-squared tests (...

Impact of validation on pocket gopher locality georeferences. Old localities (dark red circles) were designated using only the brief locality description as per the MaNIS protocol. New localities (blue and pink circles) were designated by AEM using the collector's original field notes. Our validation targeted localities that had red flags for coord...

The much smaller 6.5 km grid dataset shows similar Chi square results as the full dataset. Compare to Figure 5. The null hypothesis for the Chi square tests: random distribution across the study area for the 6.5 km grid dataset (n = 200). Expected values are proportional to the percent study area in each soil bin. For bulk density, percent clay, an...