Ontogenetic relationships between cranium and mandible in coyotes and hyenas

Developing animals must resolve the conflicting demands of survival and growth, ensuring that they can function as infants or juveniles while developing toward their adult form. In the case of the mammalian skull, the cranium and mandible must maintain functional integrity to meet the feeding needs of a juvenile even as the relationship between parts must change to meet the demands imposed on adults. We examine growth and development of the cranium and mandible, using a unique ontogenetic series of known-age coyotes (Canis latrans), analyzing ontogenetic changes in the shapes of each part, and the relationship between them, relative to key life-history events. Both cranial and mandibular development conform to general mammalian patterns, but each also exhibits temporally and spatially localized maturational transformations, yielding a complex relationship between growth and development of each part as well as complex patterns of synchronous growth and asynchronous development between parts. One major difference between cranium and mandible is that the cranium changes dramatically in both size and shape over ontogeny, whereas the mandible undergoes only modest shape change. Cranium and mandible are synchronous in growth, reaching adult size at the same life-history stage; growth and development are synchronous for the cranium but not for the mandible. This synchrony of growth between cranium and mandible, and asynchrony of mandibular development, is also characteristic of a highly specialized carnivore, the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), but coyotes have a much less protracted development, being handicapped relative to adults for a much shorter time. Morphological development does not predict life-history events in these two carnivores, which is contrary to what has been reported for two rodent species. The changes seen in skull shape in successive life-history stages suggest that adult functional demands cannot be satisfied by the morphology characterizing earlier life-history stages.