Dental microwear texture analysis reveals a likely dietary shift within Late Cretaceous ornithopod dinosaurs

Kubo, Tai; Kubo, Mugino O.; Sakamoto, Manabu; Winkler, Daniela E.; Shibata, Masateru; Zheng, Wenjie; Jin, Xingsheng; You, Hai‐Lu

doi:10.1111/pala.12681

Cited by 3 publications

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References 101 publications

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“…Thus, diets consisting of a comparable base matrix but of different inherent abrasiveness were created. To quantify mandible wear, we adapted dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA), a method originally developed for mammals and extended to diverse non-mammalian species, including lepidosaurs [29,30], bony fish [31], sharks [32,33], alligators [34] and dinosaurs [35][36][37]. DMTA quantifies microscopic wear patterns (topography) of enamel wear facets.…”

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confidence: 99%

Mandible microwear texture analysis of crickets raised on diets of different abrasiveness reveals universality of diet-induced wear

Winkler,

Seike,

Nagata

et al. 2024

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Animals have evolved diverse comminuting tools. While vertebrates possess mineralized teeth, insect mandibles often bear metal-inclusion-hardened serrated cusps. Microscopic dental enamel wear (microwear) is known to be caused by contact with ingesta. To test if insect mandible microwear is also diet-dependent, we kept newly moulted adult two-spotted crickets ( Gryllus bimaculatus ) for four weeks on alfalfa-based rodent pellets with and without added mineral abrasives (loess, quartz, volcanic ash). Six crickets per diet were examined after 1, 3, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days. All diets induced progressive mandible wear, affecting specific locations along the distal tooth cusps differently. The depth of furrows increased on most abrasive-containing diets until day 21, while wear mark complexity increased from day 1 to 3 and 14 to 21. After 28 days, these parameter values for large volcanic ash and large quartz diets significantly exceeded those for the control diet. These results are comparable to observations from guinea pig feeding experiments with the same diets. Cricket mandible wear was affected by all abrasives. Notably, large volcanic ash and large quartz induced the deepest, most complex lesions, akin to observations in guinea pigs. This suggests a universal wear process, supporting that microwear analyses are suitable for inferring invertebrate diets.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mandible microwear texture analysis of crickets raised on diets of different abrasiveness reveals universality of diet-induced wear

Winkler,

Seike,

Nagata

et al. 2024

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Tooth eruption status and bite force determine dental microwear texture gradients in albino rats (Rattus norvegicus forma domestica)

Winkler,

Bernetière,

Böhmer

2024

The Anatomical Record

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Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) is widely applied for inferring diet in vertebrates. Besides diet and ingesta properties, factors like wear stage and bite force may affect microwear formation, potentially leading to tooth position‐specific microwear patterns. We investigated DMTA consistency along the upper cheek tooth row in young adult female rats at different growth stages, but with erupted adult dentitions. Bite forces for each molar (M) position were determined using muscle cross‐sectional areas and lever arm mechanics. Rats were categorized into three size classes based on increasing skull length. Maximum bite force increased with size, while across all size classes, M3 bite force was almost 1.4 times higher than M1 bite force. In size class 1, M1 and M2 showed higher values than M3 for DMTA complexity, height, and volume parameters, while in size class 3, M1 had the lowest values. Comparing the same tooth position between size classes revealed opposing trends: M1 and M2 showed, for most parameters, decreasing roughness and complexity from size class 1–3, while M3 displayed the opposite trend, with size class 1 showing lowest, and either size class 2 or 3 the highest roughness and complexity values. This suggests that as rats age and M3 fully occludes, it becomes more utilized during mastication. DMTA, being a short‐term diet proxy, is influenced by eruption and occlusion status changes. Our findings emphasize the importance of bite force and ontogenetic stage when interpreting microwear patterns and advise to select teeth in full occlusion for diet reconstruction.

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Dental microwear texture analysis reveals a likely dietary shift within Late Cretaceous ornithopod dinosaurs

Kubo,

Sakamoto

et al. 2023

Palaeontology

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Dinosaurs were the dominant megaherbivores during the Cretaceous when angiosperms, the flowering plants, emerged and diversified. How herbivorous dinosaurs responded to the increasing diversity of angiosperms is largely unknown due to the lack of methods that can reconstruct diet directly from body fossils. We applied dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA), an approach that quantifies microtopography of diet‐induced wear marks on tooth surfaces, to ornithopods, the dinosaur clade that includes taxa with the most sophisticated masticatory system. We found that Late Cretaceous ornithopods have significantly rougher dental microwear texture (DMT) compared to pre‐Late Cretaceous ornithopods, and DMT variation increased in hadrosaurids, a derived Late Cretaceous ornithopod clade. These changes indicate a likely temporal dietary shift towards more abrasive foodstuffs within ornithopods, probably due to the increased ingestion of phytoliths (amorphous silica bodies in plants). Phytoliths are a main source of rough DMT in modern herbivores, along with exogenous dust and grit, and were generally more concentrated in Late Cretaceous angiosperms than in other major plant groups. Our results show that DMTA of the occlusal enamel surface can be used to reconstruct the diets of herbivorous dinosaurs, with a resolution superior to conventional methods.

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Dental microwear texture analysis reveals a likely dietary shift within Late Cretaceous ornithopod dinosaurs

Cited by 3 publications

References 101 publications

Mandible microwear texture analysis of crickets raised on diets of different abrasiveness reveals universality of diet-induced wear

Mandible microwear texture analysis of crickets raised on diets of different abrasiveness reveals universality of diet-induced wear

Tooth eruption status and bite force determine dental microwear texture gradients in albino rats (Rattus norvegicus forma domestica)

Dental microwear texture analysis reveals a likely dietary shift within Late Cretaceous ornithopod dinosaurs

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