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Analyzing ungulate long bones as a tool for habitat reconstruction

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Abstract

The long bones (humerus, radius, metacarpus, femur, tibia, metatarsus) of 51 extant bovid and 7 equid specimens were measured in order to test the hypothesis that they show adaptations to different habitats. We performed factor analyses (FAs) with principal component extraction method and plotted the extracted factors (Fs) in simple scatterplots. The preferred habitats (grassland, forest, mountainous regions) were labeled in the plots, and our results show three clearly separated clusters for F2 vs. F3. According to our interpretation, F1 reflects the body size of the specimens while F2 is most probably reflecting cursorial adaptations. F3 is largely affected by dimensional bone characteristics adapted to maneuver in the environment, and therefore, F3 is somehow linked to habitat. The investigated equids are plotting within the cluster of bovids preferring grassland habitats, which is surprising because of different constructions of the metapodials in perissodactyls and ruminants. Performed linear discriminant analyses (LDAs) are supporting our FA results. This approach combines biometrics with statistics and presents a tool, which easily can be applied helping to identify the paleo-habitat or the paleo-ecology of extinct bovids with implications on fossil localities.

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Acknowledgments

For access to the collections, we thank Erich Weber and Jürgen Rösinger (both ZSTÜ), Britta Möllenkamp (SAPM), Doris Mörike (SMNS), Kathrin Marquart (SMNS), and Katrin Krohmann (SMF). We also thank Julia A. Schultz (Steinmann-Institut Bonn), Ulrike Anders (Steinmann-Institut Bonn), and Guillaume Billet (MNHN Paris) for fruitful discussions, hints, and language editing. Further, we thank three anonymous reviewers for the helpful comments to the manuscript. During data acquirement and data analysis, RS was financially supported with a 2-year scholarship of the Landesgraduiertenförderung Baden-Württemberg (Germany).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Steinmann-Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie und Paläontologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Nussallee 8, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Rico Schellhorn

  2. Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Hölderlinstr. 12, 72074, Tübingen, Germany

    Rico Schellhorn & Hans-Ulrich Pfretzschner

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  1. Rico Schellhorn
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  2. Hans-Ulrich Pfretzschner
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Correspondence to Rico Schellhorn.

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Communicated by: Rafał Kowalczyk

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Schellhorn, R., Pfretzschner, HU. Analyzing ungulate long bones as a tool for habitat reconstruction. Mamm Res 60, 195–205 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-015-0218-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-015-0218-0

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