The evolution of development: two portraits of skull ossification in pipoid frogs

Development creates morphology, and the study of developmental processes has repeatedly shed light on patterns of morphological evolution. However, development itself evolves as well, often concomitantly with changes in life history or in morphology. In this paper, two approaches are used to examine the evolution of skull development in pipoid frogs. Pipoids have highly unusual morphologies and life histories compared to other frogs, and their development also proves to be remarkable. First, a phylogenetic examination of skull bone ossification sequences reveals that jaw ossification occurs significantly earlier in pipoids than in other frogs; this represents a reversal to the primitive vertebrate condition. Early jaw ossification in pipoids is hypothesized to result from the absence of certain larval specializations possessed by other frogs, combined with unusual larval feeding behaviors. Second, thin-plate spline morphometric studies of ontogenetic shape change reveal important differences between pipoid skull development and that of other frogs. In the course of frog evolution, there has been a shift away from salamander-like patterns of ontogenetic shape change. The pipoids represent the culmination of this trend, and their morphologies are highly derived in numerous respects. This study represents the first detailed examination of the evolution of skull development in a diverse vertebrate clade within a phylogenetic framework. It is also the first study to examine ossification sequences across vertebrates, and the first to use thin-plate spline morphometrics to quantitatively describe ontogenetic trajectories.