Feeding in Marine Mammals: an integration of evolution and ecology through time ...

• Main Authors: Lanzetti, Agnese, Berta, Annalisa
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2019
• Subjects: Ursus maritimus; Lontra
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6086/d14671; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.6086/D14671

Marine mammals are key components of aquatic ecosystems. Feeding strategies identified in extant cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, marine otters, and polar bears are associated with anatomical specializations of the head (rostrum, palate, temporomandibular joint, teeth/baleen, mandible). Genetic and ontogenetic evidence of skull and tooth morphology provide the mechanisms that underlie patterns of feeding diversity. Based on a comprehensive diversity data set derived from the Paleobiology Database, we considered feeding strategies (suction, biting, filter feeding, grazing), prey type (squid, fish, benthic invertebrates, zooplankton, tetrapods, sea grasses), tooth pattern and cusp shape (homodont, heterodont, pointed, rounded, edentulous), and habitat (marine, riverine, estuarine) in fossil and extant marine mammals. These variables were then tested for correlation and their changes through time examined in relation to productivity and climate variables. We provide an integrated analysis of the evolution of ... : Generic and ecological diversity through time Raw taxon counts for 61 extant and 374 fossil marine mammal genera recorded at the level of geological stage were downloaded from the Paleobiology Database (PBDB, www.paleobiodb.org). The search was performed separately for the following groups: “Archaeoceti, Cetacea”, “Pinnipedomorpha”, “Sirenia”, “Desmostylia”, “Thalassocnus”, “Ursus maritimus, Kolponomos”, “Aonychini, Aonyxini, Enhydra, Enhydrini, Enhydriodontini, Lontra, Lutra, Pteronura, Siamogale” (sea otters). Occurrences for each group were downloaded for each time bin (geological stage), starting from the Ypresian (early Eocene), using the “major (default)” time rule. Only occurrences with certain generic assignment were considered (“genus_certain”). The data include all occurrences entered up to 12/31/2017. Since geological stages in the Pleistocene and Holocene result in time bins that are of much shorter duration than any of the other stages, creating few occurrences in each of these time intervals, ...