Dental microwear textural analysis as an analytical tool to depict individual traits and reconstruct the diet of a primate

Percher, Alice M.; Garcia, Géraldine; Akoué, Gontran Nsi; Galbany, Jordi; Romero, Alejandro; Charpentier, Marie

doi:10.1002/ajpa.23337

Cited by 40 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 109 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In contrast to our findings, the DMTA showed that during the Late Holocene the diet of aurochs from northeastern Europe was mixed or browsing (Hofman- Kamińska, Merceron, et al, 2018). This is likely to be the effect of seasonality in the animal's diet, which is possible to detect through teeth microwear analysis (Percher et al, 2018), therefore, has a different chronological resolution than the reconstruction of the diet reflecting the whole life of the animal, which is given by the analysis of stable isotopes (Hedges, Clement, Thomas, & O'connell TC, 2007).…”

Section: Stable Isotope Composition Of Large Herbivores During the contrasting

confidence: 99%

Adapt or die—Response of large herbivores to environmental changes in Europe during the Holocene

Hofman‐Kamińska

Bocherens

Drucker

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate warming and human landscape transformation during the Holocene resulted in environmental changes for wild animals. The last remnants of the European Pleistocene megafauna that survived into the Holocene were particularly vulnerable to changes in habitat. To track the response of habitat use and foraging of large herbivores to natural and anthropogenic changes in environmental conditions during the Holocene, we investigated carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope composition in bone collagen of moose (Alces alces), European bison (Bison bonasus) and aurochs (Bos primigenius) in Central and Eastern Europe. We found strong variations in isotope compositions in the studied species throughout the Holocene and diverse responses to changing environmental conditions. All three species showed significant changes in their δ13C values reflecting a shift of foraging habitats from more open in the Early and pre‐Neolithic Holocene to more forest during the Neolithic and Late Holocene. This shift was strongest in European bison, suggesting higher plasticity, more limited in moose, and the least in aurochs. Significant increases of δ15N values in European bison and moose are evidence of a diet change towards more grazing, but may also reflect increased nitrogen in soils following deglaciation and global temperature increases. Among the factors explaining the observed isotope variations were time (age of samples), longitude and elevation in European bison, and time, longitude and forest cover in aurochs. None of the analysed factors explained isotope variations in moose. Our results demonstrate the strong influence of natural (forest expansion) and anthropogenic (deforestation and human pressure) changes on the foraging ecology of large herbivores, with forests playing a major role as a refugial habitat since the Neolithic, particularly for European bison and aurochs. We propose that high flexibility in foraging strategy was the key for survival of large herbivores in the changing environmental conditions of the Holocene.

show abstract

Section: Stable Isotope Composition Of Large Herbivores During the contrasting

confidence: 99%

Adapt or die—Response of large herbivores to environmental changes in Europe during the Holocene

Hofman‐Kamińska

Bocherens

Drucker

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Of course, most dental microwear studies are not focused on precisely how microwear is formed at a microscopic level. Instead, they tend to either examine (a) how overall patterns of dental microwear relate to the effects of oral food processing of specific foods and abrasives (e.g., Hoffman et al, ; Mainland, ; Merceron, Viriot, & Blondel, ; Merceron et al, ; Schulz et al, or (b) how those patterns of dental microwear might reflect similarities and differences in diet, ecology, and so on (e.g., Calandra & Merceron, ; Daegling et al, ; Percher et al, ; Scott, Teaford, & Ungar, ; Teaford, Ungar, & Grine, ). As such, they involve longer‐term, cumulative effects of microwear events overlain on each other, ultimately hinging on questions of how microwear patterns are created, maintained, and/or changed through time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many microwear‐based dietary reconstructions are ultimately based on correlations between patterns of dental microwear in extant taxa and published differences in diet for those taxa. By comparison, there have been very few studies of dental microwear on living animals (e.g., Hoffman, Fraser, & Clementz, ; Nystrom, Phillips‐Conroy, & Jolly, ; Percher et al, ; Teaford & Glander, , ; Teaford & Oyen, , ; Teaford & Tylenda, ) and even fewer longitudinal, in vivo, studies of dental microwear formation (Romero, Galbany, De Juan, & Pérez‐Pérez, ; Teaford & Lytle, ; Teaford & Oyen, ). Moreover, while a growing number of primate behavioral studies are including analyses of food material properties or exogenous grit (e.g., Dominy, Vogel, Yeakel, Constantino, & Lucas, ; Elgart Berry, ; Kinzey & Norconk, , ; Lucas et al, ; Lucas & Teaford, ; Teaford, Lucas, Ungar, & Glander, ; Ungar, Teaford, Glander, & Pastor, ; Vogel et al, ; Wright, ; Wright et al, ; Yamashita, ), only one has combined these data with dental microwear analyses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dental microwear of hard‐object feeding in laboratory Sapajus apella and its implications for dental microwear formation

Teaford

Ungar

Taylor

et al. 2020

American J Phys Anthropol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives: This study seeks to determine if (a) consumption of hard food items or a mixture of food items leads to the formation of premolar or molar microwear in laboratory capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella) in one feeding session and (b) rates of microwear formation are associated with the number of food items consumed.Materials and methods: Five adult male capuchins were used in two experiments, one where they were fed unshelled Brazil nuts, and the other where they were fed a mixture of food items. Dental impressions were taken before and after each feeding session. Epoxy casts made from those impressions then were used in SEM analyses of rates of microwear formation. Upper and lower premolars and molars were analyzed. Qualitative comparisons were made and Spearman's rank-order correlations used to examine the relationship between rates of microwear formation and number of Brazil nuts consumed.Results: Premolars and molars generally showed new microwear in the form of pits and scratches. However, the incidence of those features was low (0-6%). Rates of microwear formation were highest during the consumption of Brazil nuts.Discussion: Variations in the rate of microwear formation on the premolars likely reflected patterns of ingestion whereas consistency in the rate of microwear on the molars likely reflected patterns of chewing. While dental microwear formation seemed to be correlated with the number of hard objects consumed, rates did differ between individuals. Differences in results between the two experiments demonstrate some of the limitations in our knowledge of dental microwear formation.

show abstract

“…Several studies reported on varying microwear patterns due to age, sex or seasonality (e.g., Gordon, 1982;Percher et al, 2018;Schulz-Kornas et al, 2019), which are mainly influenced by dietary variation but also by external factors (e.g., dust). For chimpanzees with a versatile diet (e.g., Hiraiwa-Hasegawa, 1990b;Tutin et al, 1991;Boesch and Boesch-Achermann, 2000;Morgan and Sanz, 2006) it raises the question as to whether the actual dietary variation of chimpanzees is too diverse (e.g., Tutin et al, 1991;Boesch and Boesch-Achermann, 2000;Morgan and Sanz, 2006;Pruetz, 2006) to reflect changes in single feeding categories in the 3DST pattern.…”

Section: Sex and Season Influence The Wear Pattern Stronger Than Agementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the latter allows for the quantification of various geometric aspects, such as surface height, feature density, and surface complexity. By using SSFA to study inter-individual dietary habits in mandrills Percher et al (2018) found an indication for a positive correlation between the fill volume of texture features and age, which these authors assumed to be correlated with a slight increase in hard objects and monocotyledons consumed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ontogenetic Dietary Shifts and Microscopic Tooth Wear in Western Chimpanzees

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Microscopic tooth wear studies on primates have largely focused on interspecific dietary comparisons, while few have addressed intraspecific variations, such as those among age groups. Here, we examined to what extent dietary shifts during ontogeny can be revealed from microscopic tooth wear in a western chimpanzee population using 3D surface texture (3DST) analysis. To this end, we analyzed feeding observation data of 14 chimpanzees of the Taï National Park (Ivory Coast) and matched them to 3DST data analyzed on two wear facets (f9, f3) of deciduous fourth premolars and permanent molars of 41 specimens (infants, juveniles, adolescents, adults) of the same population. We expected to find an age-dependent increase in texture complexity resulting from the more frequent consumption of seeds and insects in older compared to younger individuals. Furthermore, we expected the introduction of phytolith-producing plants to the diet of post-weaned individuals to result in many small and parallel-orientated 3DST features in juveniles, adolescents and adults compared to infants. We found that the 3DST pattern did not mirror the observed increase in dietary breadth from infants to adults. However, we found that age-dependent differences in the consumption of phytolith-producing plants were reflected to some extent in the 3DST pattern: infants and adolescents who spent more time feeding on phytolith-producing plants than older individuals had more parallel orientated 3DSTs with higher peaks, while adults had flatter and more randomly orientated 3DST features. Our results suggest that phytoliths as small abrasive particles may be of greater importance for the 3DST formation than food categories, such as fruits, leaves or seeds. However, compared to the variation in the feeding data, 3DST results show only little variation among age groups. We conclude that 3DST does not explicitly reflect ontogenetic dietary changes in chimpanzees. Rather, other factors, such as individual-or sex-based feeding habits as well as seasonal variation in dust accumulation, may be of greater importance for 3DST formation.

show abstract

Dental microwear textural analysis as an analytical tool to depict individual traits and reconstruct the diet of a primate

Cited by 40 publications

References 109 publications

Adapt or die—Response of large herbivores to environmental changes in Europe during the Holocene

Adapt or die—Response of large herbivores to environmental changes in Europe during the Holocene

The dental microwear of hard‐object feeding in laboratory Sapajus apella and its implications for dental microwear formation

Ontogenetic Dietary Shifts and Microscopic Tooth Wear in Western Chimpanzees

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About