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Inferring Mammal Dietary Ecology from Dental Morphology

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Methods in Paleoecology

Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology ((VERT))

Abstract

The teeth of mammals are the key interface between food and animal – where the rubber meets the road. Mammals generally use their teeth for mechanical processing, thereby facilitating and increasing rates of ingestion, digestion and fermentation. The various foods eaten by mammals respond to bite forces in different ways: some foods fracture easily, while others resist cracks propagating through them. In addition, some foods must be broken down to small pieces for effective energy and nutrient extraction; others merely need to be small enough to swallow. The most effective tooth morphology therefore varies with the mechanical properties of the food. Tooth shape can help to determine the typical food sources consumed by mammals at a given fossil locality, which in turn informs the broad environmental conditions and community structure once present at the site. In this chapter, we examine the ways in which mammalian tooth morphology can serve as an indicator of diet and thus past environments by examining the materials science of foods and the functional morphology of mammal teeth.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Darin Croft, Denise Su and Scott Simpson for the invitation to attend the Paleoecology Symposium in Cleveland and to contribute to this volume. We also thank Felix Marx, David Hocking, Gudrun Evans, Darin Croft and three anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions that greatly improved this manuscript. Partial support for this research was provided by the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT130100968 to A.R.E. and NSF-DEB 1257625 and the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems program at NMNH Smithsonian Institution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Alistair R. Evans

  2. Geosciences, Museums Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

    Alistair R. Evans

  3. Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems (ETE), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA

    Silvia Pineda-Munoz

Authors
  1. Alistair R. Evans
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  2. Silvia Pineda-Munoz
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Correspondence to Alistair R. Evans .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Darin A. Croft

  2. Department of Paleobotany and Paleoecology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Denise F. Su

  3. Department of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Scott W. Simpson

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Evans, A.R., Pineda-Munoz, S. (2018). Inferring Mammal Dietary Ecology from Dental Morphology. In: Croft, D., Su, D., Simpson, S. (eds) Methods in Paleoecology. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94265-0_4

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