Dental microwear texture analysis: technical considerations

Scott, Robert S.; Ungar, Peter S.; Bergstrom, Torbjorn S.; Brown, Christopher; Childs, Benjamin E.; Teaford, Mark F.; Walker, Alan

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.04.006

Cited by 367 publications

(472 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Dental microwear texture analysis (17,18) was applied to specimens from 3 distinct climate zones ( Fig. 2 and Table S1) to test whether P. goliah was a browser, mixed-feeder, or grazer.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to the enrichment of 18 O in leaf-water, herbivores that are less reliant on free-water and live in drier environments generally have higher enamel ␦ 18 O values than those which obtain a larger fraction of their ingested water directly from waterholes and streams (25). The relationship between enamel ␦ 18 O values and environmental parameters (e.g., local meteoric water ␦ 18 O, relative humidity) is very similar for a broad range of extant species (4).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Extinction implications of a chenopod browse diet for a giant Pleistocene kangaroo

Prideaux

Ayliffe

DeSantis

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Kangaroos are the world's most diverse group of herbivorous marsupials. Following late-Miocene intensification of aridity and seasonality, they radiated across Australia, becoming the continent's ecological equivalents of the artiodactyl ungulates elsewhere. Their diversity peaked during the Pleistocene, but by approximately 45,000 years ago, 90% of larger kangaroos were extinct, along with a range of other giant species. Resolving whether climate change or human arrival was the principal extinction cause remains highly contentious. Here we combine craniodental morphology, stable-isotopic, and dental microwear data to reveal that the largest-ever kangaroo, Procoptodon goliah, was a chenopod browse specialist, which may have had a preference for Atriplex (saltbushes), one of a few dicots using the C 4 photosynthetic pathway. Furthermore, oxygen isotope signatures of P. goliah tooth enamel show that it drank more in low-rainfall areas than its grazing contemporaries, similar to modern saltbush feeders. Saltbushes and chenopod shrublands in general are poorly flammable, so landscape burning by humans is unlikely to have caused a reduction in fodder driving the species to extinction. Aridity is discounted as a primary cause because P. goliah evolved in response to increased aridity and disappeared during an interval wetter than many it survived earlier. Hunting by humans, who were also bound to water, may have been a more decisive factor in the extinction of this giant marsupial.Australia ͉ dietary ecology ͉ extinct marsupial ͉ stable isotopes ͉ human hunting

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“…Dental microwear texture analysis (17,18) was applied to specimens from 3 distinct climate zones ( Fig. 2 and Table S1) to test whether P. goliah was a browser, mixed-feeder, or grazer.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinction implications of a chenopod browse diet for a giant Pleistocene kangaroo

Prideaux

Ayliffe

DeSantis

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…1; Appendix S2) were generated in order to be consistent with the procedures shown in Scott et al. (2006) and widely used as standard by many colleagues (e.g., Scott 2012; Scott et al. 2012; Stynder et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All variables have been described in further detail in Scott et al. (2006). Statistical tests were then used in order to highlight potential differences in dental microwear textural parameters between the dietary groups.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seeds, browse, and tooth wear: a sheep perspective

Ramdarshan

Blondel

Brunetière

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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While grazing as a selective factor towards hypsodont dentition on mammals has gained a lot of attention, the importance of fruits and seeds as fallback resources for many browsing ungulates has caught much less attention. Controlled‐food experiments, by reducing the dietary range, allow for a direct quantification of the effect of each type of items separately on enamel abrasion. We present the results of a dental microwear texture analysis on 40 ewes clustered into four different controlled diets: clover alone, and then three diets composed of clover together with either barley, corn, or chestnuts. Among the seed‐eating groups, only the barley one shows higher complexity than the seed‐free group. Canonical discriminant analysis is successful at correctly classifying the majority of clover‐ and seed‐fed ewes. Although this study focuses on diets which all fall within a single dietary category (browse), the groups show variations in dental microwear textures in relation with the presence and the type of seeds. More than a matter of seed size and hardness, a high amount of kernels ingested per day is found to be correlated with high complexity on enamel molar facets. This highlights the high variability of the physical properties of the foods falling under the browsing umbrella.

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