Mastodons (Mammut americanum) Diet Foraging Patterns Based on Analysis of Dung Deposits

Newsom, Lee A.; Mihlbachler, Mathew C.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-4694-0_10

Cited by 26 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The asiatica lineage is subtended by a domestic Ethiopian landrace, whereas a wild gourd from Kenya falls at the base of the siceraria group, suggesting that the Horn of Africa might have been an important ancestral center of Lagenaria diversity, and a source region for asiatica gourds dispersing from Africa north and east into Eurasia, as discussed elsewhere (15). mastodon dung in Florida (29), revealing megafaunal dispersal of very similar fruits. Today, no wild bottle gourd populations survive in the Neotropics, and wild gourds are near extinction in Africa (5,25).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Transoceanic drift and the domestication of African bottle gourds in the Americas

Kistler¹,

Montenegro

Smith

et al. 2014

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

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135

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Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) was one of the first domesticated plants, and the only one with a global distribution during pre-Columbian times. Although native to Africa, bottle gourd was in use by humans in east Asia, possibly as early as 11,000 y ago (BP) and in the Americas by 10,000 BP. Despite its utilitarian importance to diverse human populations, it remains unresolved how the bottle gourd came to be so widely distributed, and in particular how and when it arrived in the New World. A previous study using ancient DNA concluded that Paleoindians transported already domesticated gourds to the Americas from Asia when colonizing the New World [Erickson et al. (2005) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102 (51):18315-18320]. However, this scenario requires the propagation of tropical-adapted bottle gourds across the Arctic. Here, we isolate 86,000 base pairs of plastid DNA from a geographically broad sample of archaeological and living bottle gourds. In contrast to the earlier results, we find that all pre-Columbian bottle gourds are most closely related to African gourds, not Asian gourds.Ocean-current drift modeling shows that wild African gourds could have simply floated across the Atlantic during the Late Pleistocene. Once they arrived in the New World, naturalized gourd populations likely became established in the Neotropics via dispersal by megafaunal mammals. These wild populations were domesticated in several distinct New World locales, most likely near established centers of food crop domestication.long-distance dispersal | New World domestication | archaeogenomics

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Transoceanic drift and the domestication of African bottle gourds in the Americas

Kistler¹,

Montenegro

Smith

et al. 2014

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

Self Cite

135

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“…Our results also support the notion that some extinct Pleistocene megafauna, notably elephants, could have dispersed this plant effectively (Boone et al., ). Indeed, intact persimmon seeds have been found in mastodon dung at one fossil site (Newsom & Mihlbachler, ). Large Pleistocene mammals could have been highly effective dispersers (although not obligatory) because they would have presumably traveled long distances and been capable of consuming large quantities of fruit.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seed dispersal of Diospyros virginiana in the past and the present: Evidence for a generalist evolutionary strategy

Rebein

Davis

Abad

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Several North American trees are hypothesized to have lost their co‐evolved seed disperser during the late‐Pleistocene extinction and are therefore considered anachronistic. We tested this hypothesis for the American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) by studying the effects of gut passage of proposed seed dispersers on seedling survival and growth, natural fruiting characteristics, and modern animal consumption patterns. We tested gut passage effects on persimmon seeds using three native living species, the raccoon (Procyon lotor), Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), and coyote (Canis latrans), and two Pleistocene analogs; the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and alpaca (Vicugna pacos). Persimmon seeds excreted by raccoons, coyotes, and elephants survived gut transit. Gut passage did not affect sprouting success, but did tend to decrease time to sprout and increase seedling quality. Under field conditions, persimmon fruits were palatable on the parent tree and on the ground for an equal duration, but most fruits were consumed on the ground. Seven vertebrate species fed upon persimmon fruits, with the white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)—a species not capable of dispersing persimmon seeds—comprising over 90% of detections. Conversely, potential living seed dispersers were rarely detected. Our results suggest the American persimmon evolved to attract a variety of seed dispersers and thus is not anachronistic. However, human‐induced changes in mammal communities could be affecting successful seed dispersal. We argue that changes in the relative abundance of mammals during the Anthropocene may be modifying seed dispersal patterns, leading to potential changes in forest community composition.

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“…American Mastodon (Mammut americanum) is generally associated with conifer (especially spruce) forest, mixed coniferous forests, deciduous forests, or parklands with bogs or swamps, ponds, marshes, and periglacial lake environments (Haynes 1991:90;Kapp 1986;Jackson et al 1986;Mead et al 1979;Newsom and Mihlbachler 2006;Petersen et al 1983). The Manis Mastodon site from the Olympic Peninsula near Port Angeles, Washington, was associated with shrubby, meadow steppe and riparian wetlands featuring grasses, sedges, and willows with dense stands of cattails (Gustafson et al 1979).…”

Section: Inferred Ecology and Dietary Preferences Of Pleistocene Megamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Manis Mastodon site from the Olympic Peninsula near Port Angeles, Washington, was associated with shrubby, meadow steppe and riparian wetlands featuring grasses, sedges, and willows with dense stands of cattails (Gustafson et al 1979). Mammut americanum is classified as a browser, which consumes principally woody vegetation (King and Saunders 1984;Haynes 1991;Newsom and Mihlbachler 2006;Webb 1992). This is supported by jaw morphology (Laub 1996), tusk curvature (Saunders 1996), contents of their digesta (Webb et al 1992), and dentition that consisted of relatively low-crowned molars of parallel rows of nipple shaped cusps indicative of crushing twigs, leaves, and stems (Haynes 1991:4;Tobien 1996).…”

Section: Inferred Ecology and Dietary Preferences Of Pleistocene Megamentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronology and Ecology of Late Pleistocene Megafauna in the Northern Willamette Valley, Oregon

Gilmour¹

2000

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Mastodons (Mammut americanum) Diet Foraging Patterns Based on Analysis of Dung Deposits

Cited by 26 publications

References 39 publications

Transoceanic drift and the domestication of African bottle gourds in the Americas

Transoceanic drift and the domestication of African bottle gourds in the Americas

Seed dispersal of Diospyros virginiana in the past and the present: Evidence for a generalist evolutionary strategy

Chronology and Ecology of Late Pleistocene Megafauna in the Northern Willamette Valley, Oregon

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