Competition and character displacement

The remarkable ratio-equality of canine diameter and carnassial lengths in guilds of carnivores described in Dayan et al. (1989a, 1989b, 1990, 1992) is used as an indication of exploitation competition between the species and (in most guilds) the sexes, and Pimm and Gittleman (1990) write "that the next generation of ecology texts will publish these figures widely".

However, alternative null hypothesis and species compositions lead to different or modified conclusions and the process of exploitation competition seems to be only a part - and not a primary one - of the explanation of ratio-equality.