Margot Michaud

University of Liège | ulg

Among evolutionary trends shaping phenotypic diversity over macroevolutionary scales, CREA (CRaniofacial Evolutionary Allometry) describes a tendency, among closely related species, for the smaller-sized of the group to have proportionally shorter rostra and larger braincases. Here, we used a phylogenetically broad cranial dataset, 3D geometric mor...

Several large "shepherd" or livestock guardian dog (LGD) breeds were historically selectively bred to protect sheep and goat flocks in the Balkans, Anatolia, and the Caucasus regions. Although these breeds exhibit similar behavior, their morphology is different. Yet, the fine characterization of the phenotypic differences remains to be analyzed. Th...

Many of the millions of animals dedicated to the deities in Ancient Egypt were canids. In contrast to the rare textual sources, the abundance of skeletal remains offers the opportunity to address the question of whether wild or domestic canids were mummified. However, species identification from osteological material remains problematic because it...

Panthera gombaszoegensis is a fossil pantherine from the Pleistocene of Eurasia. It has been considered to be the closest ancestor the jaguar (Panthera onca) due to dental similarities, and has even sometimes been considered to be a subspecies of jaguar. However, our knowledge of this taxon is limited by the scarcity of cranial remains, which has m...

The reasons why some animals have developed larger brains has long been a subject of debate. Yet, it remains unclear which selective pressures may favour the encephalization and how it may act during evolution at different taxonomic scales. Here we studied the patterns and tempo of brain evolution within the order Carnivora and present large-scale...

Endangered animals in captivity may display reduced brain sizes due to captive conditions and limited genetic diversity. Captive diets, for example, may differ in nutrition and texture, altering cranial musculature and alleviating constraints on cranial shape development. Changes in brain size are associated with biological fitness, which may limit...

The reasons why some animals have developed larger brains has long been a subject of debate. Yet, it remains unclear which selective pressures may favour the encephalization and how it may act during evolution at different taxonomic scales. Here we studied the patterns and tempo of brain evolution within the order Carnivora and present the first la...

Panthera gombaszoegensis is a fossil pantherine from the Pleistocene of Eurasia. Due to dental similarities with the jaguar (Panthera onca), it was considered to be the closest ancestor to the modern jaguar and was even sometimes considered as a subspecies of jaguar. Our knowledge of this taxa is, however, limited by the scarcity of cranial remains...

Encephalization, to be understood as a larger brain size than predicted for a given body size, is presumed to confer selective advantages due to enhanced cognition and broader behavioural flexibility. However, decades of research on brain evolution have produced conflicting results. In this study, we propose to investigate the effect of ecological...

The skeleton is a complex arrangement of anatomical structures that covary to various degrees depending on both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Among the Feliformia, many species are characterized by predator lifestyles providing a unique opportunity to investigate the impact of highly specialized hypercarnivorous diet on phenotypic integration an...

In the modern definition of adaptive radiation, a clade rapidly diversifies from a common ancestor to colonize a wide variety of new ecological niches. The idea of multiplication of species related to an adaptive radiation is well accepted. However, the assessment of how ecological and phenotypic diversity is interrelated in the case of adaptive ra...