Molar microwear and diet in large carnivores: inferences concerning diet in the sabretooth cat, Smilodon fatalis
Patterns of dental microwear provide some of the best indirect evidence of tooth use and diet in living and extinct species, and thus can supplement inferences based on gross morphology. In this paper, dental microwear features are examined in the extinct sabretooth cat Smilodon fatalis and among ei...
Published in: | Journal of Zoology |
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Language: | English |
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Wiley
1990
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x |
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crwiley:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x 2024-04-28T08:41:18+00:00 Molar microwear and diet in large carnivores: inferences concerning diet in the sabretooth cat, Smilodon fatalis VALKENBURGH, B. VAN TEAFORD, M. F. WALKER, A. 1990 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Journal of Zoology volume 222, issue 2, page 319-340 ISSN 0952-8369 1469-7998 Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 1990 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x 2024-04-08T06:55:24Z Patterns of dental microwear provide some of the best indirect evidence of tooth use and diet in living and extinct species, and thus can supplement inferences based on gross morphology. In this paper, dental microwear features are examined in the extinct sabretooth cat Smilodon fatalis and among eight species of extant large carnivores, including felids, canids, hyaenids and a mustelid. Although all the living species are primarily carnivorous, some differ in the relative quantities of large bones consumed; hyaenas are the most frequent bone‐crushers and cheetahs the least. Because bone is harder than meat, interspecific differences in bone consumption are expected to be reflected by differences in microwear pattern. Scanning electron micrographs of the wear facet of the lower first molar (carnassial) were used to estimate the average density, size, shape and orientation of microwear features for each species. Results indicate that dietary differences are highlighted when features shorter than 30 μm in length are excluded from the analysis. When this is done, hyaenas are distinguished from other species by a combination of relatively few long features and a high proportion of pits to scratches. By contrast, the cheetah is characterized by a predominance of narrow features, relatively few of which are pits. Species of intermediate diet, such as the wolf, leopard, wild dog and wolverine, tend to be intermediate in pit density and feature shape. Comparisons of the carnivore microwear data with that published for primates reveal that the eight carnivores are most similar to frugivorous primates that specialize on relatively hard fruits. In addition, the orientation of microwear features is significantly more variable in carnivores than in the only comparably studied primate, the chimpanzee. This suggests that many of the microwear features on the carnassial are produced by food moving in directions other than occlusal pathways. The pattern of microwear features in the sabretooth cat is distinct from all of the ... Article in Journal/Newspaper wolverine Wiley Online Library Journal of Zoology 222 2 319 340 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
topic |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics VALKENBURGH, B. VAN TEAFORD, M. F. WALKER, A. Molar microwear and diet in large carnivores: inferences concerning diet in the sabretooth cat, Smilodon fatalis |
topic_facet |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Patterns of dental microwear provide some of the best indirect evidence of tooth use and diet in living and extinct species, and thus can supplement inferences based on gross morphology. In this paper, dental microwear features are examined in the extinct sabretooth cat Smilodon fatalis and among eight species of extant large carnivores, including felids, canids, hyaenids and a mustelid. Although all the living species are primarily carnivorous, some differ in the relative quantities of large bones consumed; hyaenas are the most frequent bone‐crushers and cheetahs the least. Because bone is harder than meat, interspecific differences in bone consumption are expected to be reflected by differences in microwear pattern. Scanning electron micrographs of the wear facet of the lower first molar (carnassial) were used to estimate the average density, size, shape and orientation of microwear features for each species. Results indicate that dietary differences are highlighted when features shorter than 30 μm in length are excluded from the analysis. When this is done, hyaenas are distinguished from other species by a combination of relatively few long features and a high proportion of pits to scratches. By contrast, the cheetah is characterized by a predominance of narrow features, relatively few of which are pits. Species of intermediate diet, such as the wolf, leopard, wild dog and wolverine, tend to be intermediate in pit density and feature shape. Comparisons of the carnivore microwear data with that published for primates reveal that the eight carnivores are most similar to frugivorous primates that specialize on relatively hard fruits. In addition, the orientation of microwear features is significantly more variable in carnivores than in the only comparably studied primate, the chimpanzee. This suggests that many of the microwear features on the carnassial are produced by food moving in directions other than occlusal pathways. The pattern of microwear features in the sabretooth cat is distinct from all of the ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
VALKENBURGH, B. VAN TEAFORD, M. F. WALKER, A. |
author_facet |
VALKENBURGH, B. VAN TEAFORD, M. F. WALKER, A. |
author_sort |
VALKENBURGH, B. VAN |
title |
Molar microwear and diet in large carnivores: inferences concerning diet in the sabretooth cat, Smilodon fatalis |
title_short |
Molar microwear and diet in large carnivores: inferences concerning diet in the sabretooth cat, Smilodon fatalis |
title_full |
Molar microwear and diet in large carnivores: inferences concerning diet in the sabretooth cat, Smilodon fatalis |
title_fullStr |
Molar microwear and diet in large carnivores: inferences concerning diet in the sabretooth cat, Smilodon fatalis |
title_full_unstemmed |
Molar microwear and diet in large carnivores: inferences concerning diet in the sabretooth cat, Smilodon fatalis |
title_sort |
molar microwear and diet in large carnivores: inferences concerning diet in the sabretooth cat, smilodon fatalis |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
1990 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x |
genre |
wolverine |
genre_facet |
wolverine |
op_source |
Journal of Zoology volume 222, issue 2, page 319-340 ISSN 0952-8369 1469-7998 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1990.tb05680.x |
container_title |
Journal of Zoology |
container_volume |
222 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
319 |
op_container_end_page |
340 |
_version_ |
1797571590924271616 |