| Dental topography indicates ecological contraction of lemur communities. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 22610897 Owner: NLM Status: In-Data-Review |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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Understanding the paleoecology of extinct subfossil lemurs requires reconstruction of dietary preferences. Tooth morphology is strongly correlated with diet in living primates and is appropriate for inferring dietary ecology. Recently, dental topographic analysis has shown great promise in reconstructing diet from molar tooth form. Compared with traditionally used shearing metrics, dental topography is better suited for the extraordinary diversity of tooth form among subfossil lemurs and has been shown to be less sensitive to phylogenetic sources of shape variation. Specifically, we computed orientation patch counts rotated (OPCR) and Dirichlet normal energy (DNE) of molar teeth belonging to 14 species of subfossil lemurs and compared these values to those of an extant lemur sample. The two metrics succeeded in separating species in a manner that provides insights into both food processing and diet. We used them to examine the changes in lemur community ecology in Southern and Southwestern Madagascar that accompanied the extinction of giant lemurs. We show that the poverty of Madagascar's frugivore community is a long-standing phenomenon and that extinction of large-bodied lemurs in the South and Southwest resulted not merely in a loss of guild elements but also, most likely, in changes in the ecology of extant lemurs. Am J Phys Anthropol 148:215-227, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
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Authors:
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Laurie R Godfrey; Julia M Winchester; Stephen J King; Doug M Boyer; Jukka Jernvall |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
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Title: American journal of physical anthropology Volume: 148 ISSN: 1096-8644 ISO Abbreviation: Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. Publication Date: 2012 Jun |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2012-05-21 Completed Date: - Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 0400654 Medline TA: Am J Phys Anthropol Country: United States |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 215-27 Citation Subset: IM |
Copyright Information:
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Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
Affiliation:
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Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003. lgodfrey@anthro.umass.edu. |
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From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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