Carla Bardua

Natural History Museum, London · Department of Life Sciences

Habitat is one of the most important factors shaping organismal morphology, but it may vary across life history stages. Ontogenetic shifts in ecology may introduce antagonistic selection that constrains adult phenotype, particularly with ecologically distinct developmental phases such as the free-living, feeding larval stage of many frogs (Lissamph...

Metamorphosis is widespread across the animal kingdom and induces fundamental changes in the morphology, habitat and resources used by an organism during its lifetime. Metamorphic species are likely to experience more dynamic selective pressures through ontogeny compared with species with single-phase life cycles, which may drive divergent evolutio...

Evolutionary integration (covariation) of traits has long fascinated biologists because of its potential to elucidate factors that have shaped morphological evolution. Studies of tetrapod crania have identified patterns of evolutionary integration that reflect functional or developmental interactions among traits, but no studies to date have sample...

Phenotypic integration and modularity are concepts that represent the pattern of connectivity of morphological structures within an organism. Integration describes the coordinated variation of traits, and analyses of these relationships among traits often reveals the presence of modules, sets of traits that are highly integrated but relatively inde...

Abstract Background Caecilians (Gymnophiona) are the least speciose extant lissamphibian order, yet living forms capture approximately 250 million years of evolution since their earliest divergences. This long history is reflected in the broad range of skull morphologies exhibited by this largely fossorial, but developmentally diverse, clade. Howev...

Lissamphibia, the only extant, non-amniote tetrapod clade, are morphologically incredibly diverse. However, to date, studies of morphological evolution, phenotypic integration (covariation) and modularity (the division of a structure into sets of integrated traits) have concentrated overwhelmingly on amniotes. In this thesis I quantified cranial mo...

Synopsis Advances in imaging technologies, such as computed tomography (CT) and surface scanning, have facilitated the rapid generation of large datasets of high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) specimen reconstructions in recent years. The wealth of phenotypic information available from these datasets has the potential to inform our understanding...

The field of comparative morphology has entered a new phase with the rapid generation of high-resolution three-dimensional data. With freely available 3D data of thousands of species, methods for quantifying morphology that harness this rich phenotypic information are quickly emerging. Among these techniques, high-density geometric morphometric app...

Amphibians are different from most other tetrapods because they have a biphasic life cycle, with larval forms showing a dramatically different cranial anatomy and feeding strategy compared to adults. Amphibians with their exceptional diversity in habitats, lifestyles and reproductive modes are also excellent models for studying the evolutionary div...

Analyses of phenotypic integration and modularity seek to quantify levels of covariation among traits to identify their shared functional, developmental and genetic underpinnings ('integration'), which may delineate semi-independent subsets of highly integrated traits ('modules'). Existing studies have focused mainly on mammals or model organisms,...

Analyses of phenotypic integration and modularity seek to quantify levels of covariation among traits to identify their shared functional, developmental and genetic underpinnings ('integration'), which may delineate semi-independent subsets of highly integrated traits ('modules'). Existing studies have focused mainly on mammals or model organisms,...

Anurans have a long fossil record, spanning from the Early Jurassic to the Recent. However, specimens are often severely flattened, limiting their inclusion in quantitative analyses of morphological evolution. We perform a two‐dimensional morphometric analysis of anuran skull outlines, incorporating 42 Early Cretaceous to Miocene species, as well a...