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An Ecomorphological Comparative Study of Extant and Late Holocene Sigmodontinae (Rodentia, Cricetidae) Assemblages from Central-Eastern Argentina

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Abstract

The anthropic effect associated with worldwide European settlements over the last 500 years has caused dramatic environmental changes, modified regional patterns of biodiversity, and often led to local or complete extinctions. The sigmodontine rodents of Bahía Samborombón (Humid Pampas, central-eastern Argentina) constitute a good case study: a late Holocene archaeological site allowed us to compare a pre-European settlement assemblage (12 species) with the extant one (nine species). We used linear morphometrics (16 cranial and ten mandibular measurements) to assess interspecific morphological variations of the masticatory apparatus in relation to dietary habits for each assemblage. Even though sigmodontines have a tendency towards omnivory, groups based on dietary preference only overlapped partially. Size was one of the main variables involved in niche segregation, and shape characteristics such as rostrum elongation or mandible robustness were linked to different diets. We found that a combination of dietary preference and size was associated with extinctions. The main morphospace change between the two assemblages was related to the local extinction of the three greater insectivores and the smallest graminivore, located towards the center of the assemblage’s morphospace. An insectivore was incorporated, involving no significant changes in the general morphospace. Graminivores and larvivores were not affected. Our study sheds light on the causes of local extinctions of small mammals at the Humid Pampas, a phenomenon that had never been studied from an ecomorphological approach.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank to Sergio Lucero (MACN-Ma), Sergio Bogan (FHNFA), Diego Verzi, and Itatí Olivares (MLP) for their excellent predisposition and access to mammal collections. Orientation provided by Julio Torres has been a great help in age determination of Holochilus specimens. We wish to acknowledge the assistance provided by Diego Peralta with the early version of the manuscript, by Karl Sandager, Juan Jelf, and Andrew Milton with English revisions, and by the reviewers. Our special thanks are extended to Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and to Sociedad Argentina para el Estudio de los Mamíferos (SAREM) for the grants that partially funded the study of the collections, and to Sergio Vizcaíno for his guidance and support. This is a contribution to the projects PICT 201-0537, 2016-2665 Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT), and CDD-CB 650-14 Universidad Nacional de Luján (UNLu).

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  1. División Mastozoología, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”, Av. Ángel Gallardo 470, C1405DJR, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Sofía Barbero, Pablo Teta & Guillermo H. Cassini

  2. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Sofía Barbero, Pablo Teta & Guillermo H. Cassini

  3. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Nacional de Luján, Ruta 5 y Av. Constitución s/n, Luján, B6700, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Guillermo H. Cassini

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  1. Sofía Barbero
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Correspondence to Sofía Barbero.

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Barbero, S., Teta, P. & Cassini, G.H. An Ecomorphological Comparative Study of Extant and Late Holocene Sigmodontinae (Rodentia, Cricetidae) Assemblages from Central-Eastern Argentina. J Mammal Evol 27, 697–711 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-020-09497-7

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