[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Adaptive zones of feliforms and evolutionary regimes within terrestrial mammalian carnivores

## Details

**Authors** Barrett et al.

**Year** 2026

**Publisher** Nature Ecology & Evolution

**Discipline** Evolutionary Biology

**Secondary disciplines** Ecology

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-026-03176-1) 
10.1038/s41559-026-03176-1

## In authors' words

### What they found (results)

Across a phylogeny of living and extinct feliforms, dental morphology reliably predicts diet only within hypercarnivore lineages under strong selection on tooth shape, while generalist lineages show unpredictable dental evolution relative to diet.

## Commentary

### In short

Whether tooth shape predicts diet (a relationship) depends on which adaptive-zone category (a distinction) a carnivore lineage occupies, within a broader system of evolutionary regimes structuring the group's diversification.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R

**Added** 2026-09-11

**How to cite this** Barrett et al. (2026). Adaptive zones of feliforms and evolutionary regimes within terrestrial mammalian carnivores. Nature Ecology & Evolution.