Dental wear and grit ingestion in extant and extinct bears from Northern Spain
[Abstract] The dental morphology of the cave bear Ursus spelaeus (Rosenmuller & Heinroth, 1794) indicates its specialisation as a vegetation eater. Although vegetal matter plays also an important role in the diet of most living bears, the dental wear exhibited by cave bears differs qualitatively...
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Universidade da Coruña
2001
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ftunivcoruna:oai:ruc.udc.es:2183/6515 2023-05-15T18:41:53+02:00 Dental wear and grit ingestion in extant and extinct bears from Northern Spain Desgaste dentario e ingestión de partículas minerales en osos actuales y extintos del Norte de España Pinto, Ana Andrews, P. J. 2001 http://hdl.handle.net/2183/6515 eng eng Universidade da Coruña Cadernos do Laboratorio Xeolóxico de Laxe, 2001, 26: 423-429 ISSN: 00213-4497 0213-4497 http://hdl.handle.net/2183/6515 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Ursus spelaeus Ursus arctos Dental wear Diet info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2001 ftunivcoruna 2023-02-08T00:13:26Z [Abstract] The dental morphology of the cave bear Ursus spelaeus (Rosenmuller & Heinroth, 1794) indicates its specialisation as a vegetation eater. Although vegetal matter plays also an important role in the diet of most living bears, the dental wear exhibited by cave bears differs qualitatively from that seen in brown bears even on gross inspection. The diet of the extant brown bear Ursus arctos (Linnaeus, 1758) is well known from present-day stu-dies involving direct observation as well as scat analysis. The ingestion of tubers and other gritty foods has repeatedly been suggested as the cause for the extreme wear observed on cave bear teeth. In this work we seek to analyse the modes and degrees of enamel-wear in brown and cave bears from Northern Spain with the objective of shedding some light on the cave bear diet as regards to grit ingestion. We examine the incidence of gross wear features and enamel micro-fractures on the bear molars, and from this it is concluded that the cave bears analysed here did not ingest gritty foods and seemed to avoid putting into their mouth any object at all soiled with gritty dirt. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ursus arctos RUC - Repositorio Universidade Coruña |
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Open Polar |
collection |
RUC - Repositorio Universidade Coruña |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcoruna |
language |
English |
topic |
Ursus spelaeus Ursus arctos Dental wear Diet |
spellingShingle |
Ursus spelaeus Ursus arctos Dental wear Diet Pinto, Ana Andrews, P. J. Dental wear and grit ingestion in extant and extinct bears from Northern Spain |
topic_facet |
Ursus spelaeus Ursus arctos Dental wear Diet |
description |
[Abstract] The dental morphology of the cave bear Ursus spelaeus (Rosenmuller & Heinroth, 1794) indicates its specialisation as a vegetation eater. Although vegetal matter plays also an important role in the diet of most living bears, the dental wear exhibited by cave bears differs qualitatively from that seen in brown bears even on gross inspection. The diet of the extant brown bear Ursus arctos (Linnaeus, 1758) is well known from present-day stu-dies involving direct observation as well as scat analysis. The ingestion of tubers and other gritty foods has repeatedly been suggested as the cause for the extreme wear observed on cave bear teeth. In this work we seek to analyse the modes and degrees of enamel-wear in brown and cave bears from Northern Spain with the objective of shedding some light on the cave bear diet as regards to grit ingestion. We examine the incidence of gross wear features and enamel micro-fractures on the bear molars, and from this it is concluded that the cave bears analysed here did not ingest gritty foods and seemed to avoid putting into their mouth any object at all soiled with gritty dirt. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Pinto, Ana Andrews, P. J. |
author_facet |
Pinto, Ana Andrews, P. J. |
author_sort |
Pinto, Ana |
title |
Dental wear and grit ingestion in extant and extinct bears from Northern Spain |
title_short |
Dental wear and grit ingestion in extant and extinct bears from Northern Spain |
title_full |
Dental wear and grit ingestion in extant and extinct bears from Northern Spain |
title_fullStr |
Dental wear and grit ingestion in extant and extinct bears from Northern Spain |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dental wear and grit ingestion in extant and extinct bears from Northern Spain |
title_sort |
dental wear and grit ingestion in extant and extinct bears from northern spain |
publisher |
Universidade da Coruña |
publishDate |
2001 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2183/6515 |
genre |
Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Ursus arctos |
op_relation |
Cadernos do Laboratorio Xeolóxico de Laxe, 2001, 26: 423-429 ISSN: 00213-4497 0213-4497 http://hdl.handle.net/2183/6515 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
_version_ |
1766231448789975040 |