Mosaic functionality in a transitional ecomorphology: skull biomechanics in stem Hyaeninae compared to modern South African carnivorans
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Ecomorphologies are categories of ecological adaptation and function, although intermediates are not always available to shed light on functionality at the transitional stages between them. We examined an intermediate bone-cracking carnivoran ecomorphology, the stem hyaenine Ikelohyaena abronia, using finite element analysis. Skull models of Ikelohyaena, crown hyaenine Crocuta crocuta, and two other hypercarnivores were simulated with mastication and prey apprehension forces. The results obtained show that Ikelohyaena already possessed derived features in skull stress distribution and levels of strain energy, characteristic of the extant bone-cracking Crocuta; however, the estimated bite forces in Ikelohyaena were significantly lower. Prey apprehension simulations showed similar patterns; the low skull strain energy and low bite force of the Ikelohyaena mandible indicate a poor individual ability to take down large prey. The mosaic features of craniodental function in Ikelohyaena suggest that initial evolution of the hyaenid bone-cracking ecomorphology involved skull shape changes that increased stress dissipation, permitting incorporation of more hard food into the diet. Subsequent evolution of larger bite forces was then required to increase the size limit of bones that can be cracked and consumed. This mode of evolution would have allowed transitional hyaenid ecomorphologies to continuously increase the carcass processing ability both during competitive feeding and scavenging throughout their evolution.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".