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Incisor Enamel Microstructure of Hystricognathous and Anomaluroid Rodents from the Earliest Oligocene of Dakhla, Atlantic Sahara (Morocco)

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Abstract

Seven hystricognaths and five anomaluroids have been recently described from the earliest Oligocene of the Dakhla (DAK C2) region of Morocco, based primarily on isolated cheek teeth. Here, we analyzed the enamel microstructure of thirty associated isolated fragments of incisors. Among these specimens, only three display an early stage of uniserial Hunter-Schreger bands (HSBs), with mostly a single prism per band, but also occasionally two prisms per band (in two specimens), and a thin interprismatic matrix (IPM) that runs parallel to the prism direction, thereby documenting incisors of anomaluroids. All other sampled incisors display an enamel with multiserial HSBs, thereby documenting hystricognaths. For these latter, we recorded primarily an IPM crystallite arrangement describing the subtype 2 of multiserial HSBs, but with variation including a wide amplitude in the angle (acute) formed between the crystallites of IPM and those of the prisms, some variations in the frequency of the IPM sheet anastomoses, in the number of prisms per HSBs, and variations in the inclination of the HSBs. The absence of the subtypes 2–3 and 3 of multiserial HSBs in DAK C2 suggests that African hystricognathous rodents had still not achieved these most resistant multiserial HSBs at that time. The drier, cooler climatic regime of the early Oligocene, having increased the fragmentation and opening of habitats, might have played a role in the subsequent selection of taxa having acquired a more resistant incisor enamel.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to Henri Cappetta (ISE-M), Sébastien Enault (ISE-M), Jérôme Surault (iPHEP), Imad Elkati, Abdallah Tarmidi, Mbarek Fouadasi, and the local people of Dakhla for their assistance during the successive field seasons (2009-2017). We are grateful to Sandra Unal (ISE-M), Suzanne Jiquel (ISE-M), Bernard Marandat (ISE-M), Théo Mancuso (Université de Montpellier), and Jérôme Surault (iPHEP) for their contribution in the picking of the fossil specimens from Porto Rico (Pto) and El Argoub (Arg). We warmly thank Thomas Martin (Universität Bonn, Germany) for his useful advice regarding the enamel microstructure of rodent incisors. Many thanks to Chantal Cazevieille and Alicia Caballero-Megido (Montpellier RIO Imaging [MRI] and Institute for Neurosciences Montpellier [INM], France) for access to scanning electron microscope (SEM) facilities. We also thank the two anonymous external reviewers, who provided formal reviews of this manuscript that enhanced the final version. This research was supported by the French ANR-ERC PALASIAFRICA (ANR-08-JCJC-0017) and ANR EVAH (ANR-09-BLAN-0238) programs, the MEDYNA program (Maghreb-Eu research staff exchange on geoDYnamics, geohazards and applied geology in Northwest Africa; FP7, PIRSES-GA-2013-612572), and by the ISE-M UMR CNRS/UM/IRD/EPHE 5554 (Laboratoire de Paléontologie) and iPHEP UMR CNRS 7262. This is ISE-M publication 2018-001 SUD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS/UM/IRD/EPHE), Université de Montpellier, c.c. 064, place Eugène Bataillon, F-34095, Cedex 05, Montpellier, France

    Laurent Marivaux, Myriam Boivin, Sylvain Adnet & Rodolphe Tabuce

  2. Laboratoire de Géologie Géophysique Géorisques et Environnement (3GE), Faculté des Sciences, Université Ibn Tofail, BP. 133, 14000, Kénitra, Morocco

    Mohamed Benammi

  3. Institut de Paléoprimatologie, Paléontologie Humaine: Évolution et Paléoenvironnements (iPHEP, UMR-CNRS 7262), UFR SFA, Université de Poitiers, 40 avenue du Recteur Pineau, F-86022, Poitiers, France

    Mouloud Benammi

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  1. Laurent Marivaux
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  2. Myriam Boivin
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Correspondence to Laurent Marivaux.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

Incisor enamel microstructure for extant and extinct Ctenohystrica. The bibliographic references are those of the main text. (XLSX 13 kb)

ESM 2

Incisor enamel microstructure for extant and extinct Anomaluroidea. The bibliographic references are those of the main text. (XLSX 10 kb)

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Marivaux, L., Boivin, M., Adnet, S. et al. Incisor Enamel Microstructure of Hystricognathous and Anomaluroid Rodents from the Earliest Oligocene of Dakhla, Atlantic Sahara (Morocco). J Mammal Evol 26, 373–388 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-017-9426-5

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