Dietary adaptations and paleoecology of the Late Miocene ruminants from Pikermi and Samos in Greece

Solounias, Nikos; Dawson-Saunders, Beth

doi:10.1016/0031-0182(88)90021-1

Cited by 105 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Therefore, the relationship between grass consumption and hypsodonty deduced by Williams & Kay (2001) and other authors (e.g. Janis, 1988;Solounias & Dawson-Saunders, 1988;MacFadden, 2000) most likely arises from the correspondence between grazing and foraging in open habitats. Our results indicate that HI discriminates primarily between ungulates from open and closed habitats (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…high-crowned) teeth than others not specialized in grass consumption. The reason seems to be that an increase in tooth crown height represents an adaptation against tooth wear resulting from an abrasive diet consisting primarily of grasses with abundant silica-rich phytoliths, which represent 3-5% of dry matter in grass forage species (Van Valen, 1960;Brizuela, Detling & Cid, 1986;Solounias & Dawson-Saunders, 1988;Lucas et al, 2000). In addition, those ungulate species that feed at the ground level in an open habitat often show more hypsodont teeth than those that forage similar amounts of grass in a closed habitat.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hypsodonty in ungulates: an adaptation for grass consumption or for foraging in open habitat?

2007

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Hypsodont (i.e. high-crowned) teeth have been interpreted as an indicator of feeding preferences and habitat selection in ungulates. For this reason, the degree of hypsodonty has been used for estimating the diet of ancient taxa and in palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. The goal of this study is to elucidate the relative importance of grass consumption and open habitat foraging in the development of hypsodont teeth, using novel computer techniques of knowledge discovery applied to a dataset of 134 species of artiodactyls and perissodactyls distributed among thirteen families. The results obtained suggest that highcrowned teeth represent an adaptation for feeding in an open habitat, although the minimum threshold of hypsodonty seems to increase with the relative length of the anterior part of the jaw. On the contrary, there is no direct relationship between the degree of hypsodonty and the percentage of grass consumed, except for the correspondence between grazing and dwelling in open habitats. A relatively wide muzzle evidences an adaptation for grass foraging in open and mixed habitats, but there are some non-grazing species from a closed habitat that also show wide muzzles. Thus, the hypsodonty index, combined with the length of the anterior part of the jaw and the width of the muzzle, allows accurate inferences on the ecological preferences of extinct ungulates.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hypsodonty in ungulates: an adaptation for grass consumption or for foraging in open habitat?

2007

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“…The anatomical description and the functional analysis have been carried out in domesticated cattle, goat and sheep [4]. These materials have been specialized to graze the crude grass in the plain [5,6,10,11], and the data has not contribute to discuss the mastication system in primitive herbivorous artiodactyls, so-called browser, feeding on soft leaves in woods.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2) The M. temporalis is not well-developed in the temporal fossa region, and the muscle does not act as a crushing motor for crude plants unlike the developed grazer. The two findings may be related to the mastication strategy of browser adapted for soft leaves on which the primitive artiodactyls mainly feed in woods [5,6,11].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The data will contribute to confirm the morphological evolution and the functional adaptation of the mastication mechanism in artiodactyls including the Bovidae and domesticated ruminants. At this standing point the mouse deer species have been used for the basic osteology [9,13,14], while the mastication mechanism has been morphologically examined in the representative highly-derived ruminants [4,10,11]. However, the architecture of the mastication has remained unclear in Tragulus species.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Functional Morphology of the Mastication Muscles in the Lesser and Greater Mouse Deer.

Endo

Kimura

Sasaki

et al. 2002

The Journal of Veterinary Medical Science

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ABSTRACT. The mastication muscles were examined in the lesser (Tragulus javanicus) and greater mouse deer (Tragulus napu) to clarify the form of the mastication muscles in these primitive artiodactyls. The M. masseter was well-developed in both species, however the attachment area of its origin was not confirmed in the rostral facial part. The masseter bundles were not observed on the lateral side of the maxilla bone, and their origin was restricted to the zygomatic arch area. This suggests that the M. masseter may not act as a motor raising the mandible rostro-dorsally, but pull the insertion vertically unlike the highly derived grazer of Bovidae. The Crista temporalis was weak and the M. temporalis was thin in the mouse deer, and this indicates that the M. temporalis may not be important in the mastication in the primitive artiodactyls. These findings suggest that the browser such as mouse deer has been adapted for the feeding on soft leaves, and functional-morphologically different in mastication strategy from the grazer such as developed Bovidae species. The architecture of the mastication muscles was not different between the two species. However, in the muscle weight ratios per body weight, the M. temporalis and the M. digastricus were significantly smaller in greater mouse deer than in lesser mouse deer.

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Relationships between the fossil colobine Mesopithecus pentelicus and extant cercopithecoids, based on dental metrics

Pan

Groves

Oxnard

2004

American J Primatol

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Maxillary dental measurements from six specimens of Mesopithecus pentelicus, 64 cercopithecines, 59 African colobines, and 64 Asian colobines were analyzed by means of a "nested research design" that was specifically designed to explore the affiliation between fossils and extant cercopithecoids at different systematic levels. The results showed that the variation among taxonomic groups was mainly associated with size; however, in addition, interesting shape differences emerged, molars were shown to be important discriminators, Mesopithecus was confirmed as a colobine (as expected) and found to be closer to Asian species than to African ones, and the odd-nosed colobines were found to share more dental similarities with Mesopithecus than other colobines. The last finding is in contrast to previous studies, in which it was proposed that M. pentelicus is morphologically closely related to the African colobus and the gray langur (Semnopithecus).

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Dietary adaptations and paleoecology of the Late Miocene ruminants from Pikermi and Samos in Greece

Cited by 105 publications

References 11 publications

Hypsodonty in ungulates: an adaptation for grass consumption or for foraging in open habitat?

Hypsodonty in ungulates: an adaptation for grass consumption or for foraging in open habitat?

Functional Morphology of the Mastication Muscles in the Lesser and Greater Mouse Deer.

Relationships between the fossil colobine Mesopithecus pentelicus and extant cercopithecoids, based on dental metrics

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