Evolution of woodcutting behaviour in Early Pliocene beaver driven by consumption of woody plants
Abstract Modern beavers ( Castor ) are prolific ecosystem engineers and dramatically alter the landscape through tree harvesting and dam building. Little is known, however, about the evolutionary drivers of their woodcutting behaviour. Here we investigate if early woodcutting behaviour in Castoridae...
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2020
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70164-1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-70164-1.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-70164-1 |
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crspringernat:10.1038/s41598-020-70164-1 2023-05-15T15:06:49+02:00 Evolution of woodcutting behaviour in Early Pliocene beaver driven by consumption of woody plants Plint, Tessa Longstaffe, Fred J. Ballantyne, Ashley Telka, Alice Rybczynski, Natalia Canada Research Chairs Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Canada Foundation for Innovation Ontario Research Fund Canadian Museum of Nature National Geographic Exploration Grant, Scientific Research Grant 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70164-1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-70164-1.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-70164-1 en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Scientific Reports volume 10, issue 1 ISSN 2045-2322 Multidisciplinary journal-article 2020 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70164-1 2022-01-04T15:44:20Z Abstract Modern beavers ( Castor ) are prolific ecosystem engineers and dramatically alter the landscape through tree harvesting and dam building. Little is known, however, about the evolutionary drivers of their woodcutting behaviour. Here we investigate if early woodcutting behaviour in Castoridae was driven by nutritional needs. We measured stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes ( δ 13 C and δ 15 N) of coeval subfossil plants and beaver collagen ( Dipoides sp.) from the Early Pliocene, High Arctic Beaver Pond fossil locality (Ellesmere Island), in order to reconstruct Dipoides sp. diet. Isotopic evidence indicates a diet of woody plants and freshwater macrophytes, supporting the hypothesis that this extinct semiaquatic beaver engaged in woodcutting behaviour for feeding purposes. In a phylogenetic context, the isotopic evidence implies that woodcutting and consumption of woody plants can be traced back to a small-bodied, semiaquatic Miocene castorid, suggesting that beavers have been consuming woody plants for over 20 million years. We propose that the behavioural complex (swimming, woodcutting, and consuming woody plants) preceded and facilitated the evolution of dam building. Dam building and food caching behaviours appear to be specializations for cold winter survival and may have evolved in response to late Neogene northern cooling. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Ellesmere Island Springer Nature (via Crossref) Arctic Beaver Pond ENVELOPE(-56.848,-56.848,49.600,49.600) Ellesmere Island Scientific Reports 10 1 |
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Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
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crspringernat |
language |
English |
topic |
Multidisciplinary |
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Multidisciplinary Plint, Tessa Longstaffe, Fred J. Ballantyne, Ashley Telka, Alice Rybczynski, Natalia Evolution of woodcutting behaviour in Early Pliocene beaver driven by consumption of woody plants |
topic_facet |
Multidisciplinary |
description |
Abstract Modern beavers ( Castor ) are prolific ecosystem engineers and dramatically alter the landscape through tree harvesting and dam building. Little is known, however, about the evolutionary drivers of their woodcutting behaviour. Here we investigate if early woodcutting behaviour in Castoridae was driven by nutritional needs. We measured stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes ( δ 13 C and δ 15 N) of coeval subfossil plants and beaver collagen ( Dipoides sp.) from the Early Pliocene, High Arctic Beaver Pond fossil locality (Ellesmere Island), in order to reconstruct Dipoides sp. diet. Isotopic evidence indicates a diet of woody plants and freshwater macrophytes, supporting the hypothesis that this extinct semiaquatic beaver engaged in woodcutting behaviour for feeding purposes. In a phylogenetic context, the isotopic evidence implies that woodcutting and consumption of woody plants can be traced back to a small-bodied, semiaquatic Miocene castorid, suggesting that beavers have been consuming woody plants for over 20 million years. We propose that the behavioural complex (swimming, woodcutting, and consuming woody plants) preceded and facilitated the evolution of dam building. Dam building and food caching behaviours appear to be specializations for cold winter survival and may have evolved in response to late Neogene northern cooling. |
author2 |
Canada Research Chairs Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Canada Foundation for Innovation Ontario Research Fund Canadian Museum of Nature National Geographic Exploration Grant, Scientific Research Grant |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Plint, Tessa Longstaffe, Fred J. Ballantyne, Ashley Telka, Alice Rybczynski, Natalia |
author_facet |
Plint, Tessa Longstaffe, Fred J. Ballantyne, Ashley Telka, Alice Rybczynski, Natalia |
author_sort |
Plint, Tessa |
title |
Evolution of woodcutting behaviour in Early Pliocene beaver driven by consumption of woody plants |
title_short |
Evolution of woodcutting behaviour in Early Pliocene beaver driven by consumption of woody plants |
title_full |
Evolution of woodcutting behaviour in Early Pliocene beaver driven by consumption of woody plants |
title_fullStr |
Evolution of woodcutting behaviour in Early Pliocene beaver driven by consumption of woody plants |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evolution of woodcutting behaviour in Early Pliocene beaver driven by consumption of woody plants |
title_sort |
evolution of woodcutting behaviour in early pliocene beaver driven by consumption of woody plants |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70164-1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-70164-1.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-70164-1 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-56.848,-56.848,49.600,49.600) |
geographic |
Arctic Beaver Pond Ellesmere Island |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Beaver Pond Ellesmere Island |
genre |
Arctic Ellesmere Island |
genre_facet |
Arctic Ellesmere Island |
op_source |
Scientific Reports volume 10, issue 1 ISSN 2045-2322 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70164-1 |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766338381177946112 |