Herbivore teeth predict climatic limits in Kenyan ecosystems
(2016) In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 113(45). p.12751-12756- Abstract
A major focus in evolutionary biology is to understand how the evolution of organisms relates to changes in their physical environment. In the terrestrial realm, the interrelationships among climate, vegetation, and herbivores lie at the heart of this question. Here we introduce and test a scoring scheme for functional traits present on theworn surfaces of large mammalian herbivore teeth to capture their relationship to environmental conditions. We modeled local precipitation, temperature, primary productivity, and vegetation index as functions of dental traits of large mammal species in 13 national parks in Kenya over the past 60 y. We found that these dental traits can accurately estimate local climate and environment, even at small... (More)
A major focus in evolutionary biology is to understand how the evolution of organisms relates to changes in their physical environment. In the terrestrial realm, the interrelationships among climate, vegetation, and herbivores lie at the heart of this question. Here we introduce and test a scoring scheme for functional traits present on theworn surfaces of large mammalian herbivore teeth to capture their relationship to environmental conditions. We modeled local precipitation, temperature, primary productivity, and vegetation index as functions of dental traits of large mammal species in 13 national parks in Kenya over the past 60 y. We found that these dental traits can accurately estimate local climate and environment, even at small spatial scales within areas of relatively uniform climate (within two ecoregions), and that they predict limiting conditions better than average conditions. These findings demonstrate that the evolution of key functional properties of organisms may be more reflective of demands during recurring adverse episodes than under average conditions or during isolated severe events.
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- author
- Žliobaite, Indre ; Rinne, Janne LU ; Tóth, Anikó B. ; Mechenich, Michael ; Liu, Liping ; Behrensmeyer, Anna K. and Fortelius, Mikael
- organization
- publishing date
- 2016-11-08
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Dental traits, Ecometrics, Herbivorous mammals, Kenya, Paleoecology
- in
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- volume
- 113
- issue
- 45
- pages
- 6 pages
- publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:84994509554
- pmid:27791116
- wos:000388073300064
- ISSN
- 0027-8424
- DOI
- 10.1073/pnas.1609409113
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- c1491422-756f-426f-b047-edb58817b9f1
- date added to LUP
- 2016-11-29 08:51:55
- date last changed
- 2024-04-05 11:21:47
@article{c1491422-756f-426f-b047-edb58817b9f1,
abstract = {{<p>A major focus in evolutionary biology is to understand how the evolution of organisms relates to changes in their physical environment. In the terrestrial realm, the interrelationships among climate, vegetation, and herbivores lie at the heart of this question. Here we introduce and test a scoring scheme for functional traits present on theworn surfaces of large mammalian herbivore teeth to capture their relationship to environmental conditions. We modeled local precipitation, temperature, primary productivity, and vegetation index as functions of dental traits of large mammal species in 13 national parks in Kenya over the past 60 y. We found that these dental traits can accurately estimate local climate and environment, even at small spatial scales within areas of relatively uniform climate (within two ecoregions), and that they predict limiting conditions better than average conditions. These findings demonstrate that the evolution of key functional properties of organisms may be more reflective of demands during recurring adverse episodes than under average conditions or during isolated severe events.</p>}},
author = {{Žliobaite, Indre and Rinne, Janne and Tóth, Anikó B. and Mechenich, Michael and Liu, Liping and Behrensmeyer, Anna K. and Fortelius, Mikael}},
issn = {{0027-8424}},
keywords = {{Dental traits; Ecometrics; Herbivorous mammals; Kenya; Paleoecology}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{11}},
number = {{45}},
pages = {{12751--12756}},
publisher = {{National Academy of Sciences}},
series = {{Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}},
title = {{Herbivore teeth predict climatic limits in Kenyan ecosystems}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1609409113}},
doi = {{10.1073/pnas.1609409113}},
volume = {{113}},
year = {{2016}},
}