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Fraser D, Kim SL, Welker JM, Clementz MT. Pronghorn ( Antilocapra americana) enamel phosphate δ 18O values reflect climate seasonality: Implications for paleoclimate reconstruction. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:17005-17021. [PMID: 34938488 PMCID: PMC8668790 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2021] [Revised: 10/18/2021] [Accepted: 10/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Stable oxygen isotope (δ18O) compositions from vertebrate tooth enamel are widely used as biogeochemical proxies for paleoclimate. However, the utility of enamel oxygen isotope values for environmental reconstruction varies among species. Herein, we evaluate the use of stable oxygen isotope compositions from pronghorn (Antilocapra americana Gray, 1866) enamel for reconstructing paleoclimate seasonality, an elusive but important parameter for understanding past ecosystems. We serially sampled the lower third molars of recent adult pronghorn from Wyoming for δ18O in phosphate (δ18OPO4) and compared patterns to interpolated and measured yearly variation in environmental waters as well as from sagebrush leaves, lakes, and rivers (δ18Ow). As expected, the oxygen isotope compositions of phosphate from pronghorn enamel are enriched in 18O relative to environmental waters. For a more direct comparison, we converted δ18Ow values into expected δ18OPO4* values (δ18OW-PO4*). Pronghorn δ18OPO4 values from tooth enamel record nearly the full amplitude of seasonal variation from Wyoming δ18OW-PO4* values. Furthermore, pronghorn enamel δ18OPO4 values are more similar to modeled δ18OW-PO4* values from plant leaf waters than meteoric waters, suggesting that they obtain much of their water from evaporated plant waters. Collectively, our findings establish that seasonality in source water is reliably reflected in pronghorn enamel, providing the basis for exploring changes in the amplitude of seasonality of ancient climates. As a preliminary test, we sampled historical pronghorn specimens (1720 ± 100 AD), which show a mean decrease (a shift to lower values) of 1-2‰ in δ18OPO4 compared to the modern specimens. They also exhibit an increase in the δ18O amplitude, representing an increase in seasonality. We suggest that the cooler mean annual and summer temperatures typical of the 18th century, as well as enhanced periods of drought, drove differences among the modern and historical pronghorn, further establishing pronghorn enamel as excellent sources of paleoclimate proxy data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danielle Fraser
- PalaeobiologyCanadian Museum of NatureOttawaONCanada
- Department of BiologyCarleton UniversityOttawaONCanada
- Department of Earth SciencesCarleton UniversityOttawaONCanada
- Department of PaleobiologySmithsonian InstitutionNational Museum of Natural HistoryWashingtonDistrict of ColumbiaUSA
- Department of Geology and GeophysicsUniversity of WyomingLaramieWyomingUSA
| | - Sora L. Kim
- Department of Geology and GeophysicsUniversity of WyomingLaramieWyomingUSA
- Department of Life and Environmental SciencesUniversity of CaliforniaMercedCaliforniaUSA
| | - Jeffrey M. Welker
- Department of Biological SciencesUniversity of Alaska AnchorageAnchorageAlaskaUSA
- Department of Ecology and GeneticsUniversity of OuluOuluFinland
- UArcticOuluFinland
| | - Mark T. Clementz
- Department of Geology and GeophysicsUniversity of WyomingLaramieWyomingUSA
- Program in EcologyUniversity of WyomingLaramieWyomingUSA
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2
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MacLaren JA. Biogeography a key influence on distal forelimb variation in horses through the Cenozoic. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20202465. [PMID: 33434465 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Locomotion in terrestrial tetrapods is reliant on interactions between distal limb bones (e.g. metapodials and phalanges). The metapodial-phalangeal joint in horse (Equidae) limbs is highly specialized, facilitating vital functions (shock absorption; elastic recoil). While joint shape has changed throughout horse evolution, potential drivers of these modifications have not been quantitatively assessed. Here, I examine the morphology of the forelimb metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint of horses and their extinct kin (palaeotheres) using geometric morphometrics and disparity analyses, within a phylogenetic context. I also develop a novel alignment protocol that explores the magnitude of shape change through time, correlated against body mass and diet. MCP shape was poorly correlated with mass or diet proxies, although significant temporal correlations were detected at 0-1 Myr intervals. A clear division was recovered between New and Old World hipparionin MCP morphologies. Significant changes in MCP disparity and high rates of shape divergence were observed during the Great American Biotic Interchange, with the MCP joint becoming broad and robust in two separate monodactyl lineages, possibly exhibiting novel locomotor behaviour. This large-scale study of MCP joint shape demonstrates the apparent capacity for horses to rapidly change their distal limb morphology to overcome discrete locomotor challenges in new habitats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jamie A MacLaren
- Evolution and Diversity Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Geology, Université de Liege, Building B18, Allée du Six Août 14, Sart-Tillman Campus, Liege 4000, Belgium.,Functional Morphology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerpen 2610, Belgium
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Abstract
AbstractHuman-mediated species invasion and climate change are leading to global extinctions and are predicted to result in the loss of important axes of phylogenetic and functional diversity. However, the long-term robustness of modern communities to invasion is unknown, given the limited timescales over which they can be studied. Using the fossil record of the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM; ∼56 Ma) in North America, we evaluate mammalian community-level response to a rapid global warming event (5°-8°C) and invasion by three Eurasian mammalian orders and by species undergoing northward range shifts. We assembled a database of 144 species body sizes and created a time-scaled composite phylogeny. We calculated the phylogenetic and functional diversity of all communities before, during, and after the PETM. Despite increases in the phylogenetic diversity of the regional species pool, phylogenetic diversity of mammalian communities remained relatively unchanged, a pattern that is invariant to the tree dating method, uncertainty in tree topology, and resolution. Similarly, body size dispersion and the degree of spatial taxonomic turnover of communities remained similar across the PETM. We suggest that invasion by new taxa had little impact on Paleocene-Eocene mammal communities because niches were not saturated. Our findings are consistent with the numerous studies of modern communities that record little change in community-scale richness despite turnover in taxonomic composition during invasion. What remains unknown is whether long-term robustness to biotic and abiotic perturbation are retained by modern communities given global anthropogenic landscape modification.
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McHorse BK, Biewener AA, Pierce SE. The Evolution of a Single Toe in Horses: Causes, Consequences, and the Way Forward. Integr Comp Biol 2020; 59:638-655. [PMID: 31127281 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icz050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Horses are a classic example of macroevolution in three major traits-large body size, tall-crowned teeth (hypsodonty), and a single toe (monodactyly)-but how and why monodactyly evolved is still poorly understood. Existing hypotheses usually connect digit reduction in horses to the spread and eventual dominance of open-habitat grasslands, which took over from forests during the Cenozoic; digit reduction has been argued to be an adaptation for speed, locomotor economy, stability, and/or increased body size. In this review, we assess the evidence for these (not necessarily mutually exclusive) hypotheses from a variety of related fields, including paleoecology, phylogenetic comparative methods, and biomechanics. Convergent evolution of digit reduction, including in litopterns and artiodactyls, is also considered. We find it unlikely that a single evolutionary driver was responsible for the evolution of monodactyly, because changes in body size, foot posture, habitat, and substrate are frequently found to influence one another (and to connect to broader potential drivers, such as changing climate). We conclude with suggestions for future research to help untangle the complex dynamics of this remarkable morphological change in extinct horses. A path forward should combine regional paleoecology studies, quantitative biomechanical work, and make use of convergence and modern analogs to estimate the relative contributions of potential evolutionary drivers for digit reduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brianna K McHorse
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.,Concord Field Station, Harvard University, Bedford, MA 01730, USA.,Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Andrew A Biewener
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.,Concord Field Station, Harvard University, Bedford, MA 01730, USA
| | - Stephanie E Pierce
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.,Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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Pardo JD, Small BJ, Milner AR, Huttenlocker AK. Carboniferous–Permian climate change constrained early land vertebrate radiations. Nat Ecol Evol 2019; 3:200-206. [DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0776-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2018] [Accepted: 12/03/2018] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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Fraser D, Haupt RJ, Barr WA. Phylogenetic signal in tooth wear dietary niche proxies. Ecol Evol 2018; 8:5355-5368. [PMID: 29938058 PMCID: PMC6010706 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.4052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2018] [Revised: 02/23/2018] [Accepted: 02/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
In the absence of independent observational data, ecologists and paleoecologists use proxies for the Eltonian niches of species (i.e., the resource or dietary axes of the niche). Some dietary proxies exploit the fact that mammalian teeth experience wear during mastication, due to both tooth-on-tooth and food-on-tooth interactions. The distribution and types of wear detectible at micro- and macroscales are highly correlated with the resource preferences of individuals and, in turn, species. Because methods that quantify the distribution of tooth wear (i.e., analytical tooth wear methods) do so by direct observation of facets and marks on the teeth of individual animals, dietary inferences derived from them are thought to be independent of the clade to which individuals belong. However, an assumption of clade or phylogenetic independence when making species-level dietary inferences may be misleading if phylogenetic niche conservatism is widespread among mammals. Herein, we test for phylogenetic signal in data from numerous analytical tooth wear studies, incorporating macrowear (i.e., mesowear) and microwear (i.e., low-magnification microwear and dental microwear texture analysis). Using two measures of phylogenetic signal, heritability (H2) and Pagel's λ, we find that analytical tooth wear data are not independent of phylogeny and failing to account for such nonindependence leads to overestimation of discriminability among species with different dietary preferences. We suggest that morphological traits inherited from ancestral clades (e.g., tooth shape) influence the ways in which the teeth wear during mastication and constrain the foods individuals of a species can effectively exploit. We do not suggest that tooth wear is simply phylogeny in disguise; the tooth wear of individuals and species likely varies within some range that is set by morphological constraints. We therefore recommend the use of phylogenetic comparative methods in studies of mammalian tooth wear, whenever possible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danielle Fraser
- PalaeobiologyCanadian Museum of NatureOttawaONCanada
- Department of PaleobiologySmithsonian InstitutionNational Museum of Natural HistoryWashingtonDistrict of Columbia
| | - Ryan J. Haupt
- Department of PaleobiologySmithsonian InstitutionNational Museum of Natural HistoryWashingtonDistrict of Columbia
- Department of Geology and GeophysicsUniversity of WyomingLaramieWyoming
| | - W. Andrew Barr
- Department of PaleobiologySmithsonian InstitutionNational Museum of Natural HistoryWashingtonDistrict of Columbia
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human PaleobiologyDepartment of AnthropologyGeorge Washington UniversityWashingtonDistrict of Columbia
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Rossi MF, Mello B, Schrago CG. Comparative evaluation of macroevolutionary regimes of Ruminantia and selected mammalian lineages. Biol J Linn Soc Lond 2018. [DOI: 10.1093/biolinnean/bly009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Mariana F Rossi
- Department of Genetics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
| | - Beatriz Mello
- Department of Genetics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
| | - Carlos G Schrago
- Department of Genetics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
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Phylogenetic Paleoecology: Tree-Thinking and Ecology in Deep Time. Trends Ecol Evol 2017; 32:452-463. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2017.03.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2016] [Revised: 03/04/2017] [Accepted: 03/06/2017] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
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Aubier TG, Elias M, Llaurens V, Chazot N. Mutualistic mimicry enhances species diversification through spatial segregation and extension of the ecological niche space. Evolution 2017; 71:826-844. [DOI: 10.1111/evo.13182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2016] [Accepted: 01/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Thomas G. Aubier
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive; CEFE - UMR 5175 - CNRS, Université de Montpellier, EPHE, Université Paul Valéry; 1919 route de Mende, F-34293 Montpellier 5 France
- Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB - UMR 7205 - CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle; Sorbonne Universités; 57 rue Cuvier, CP50 F-75005 Paris France
| | - Marianne Elias
- Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB - UMR 7205 - CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle; Sorbonne Universités; 57 rue Cuvier, CP50 F-75005 Paris France
| | - Violaine Llaurens
- Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB - UMR 7205 - CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle; Sorbonne Universités; 57 rue Cuvier, CP50 F-75005 Paris France
| | - Nicolas Chazot
- Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB - UMR 7205 - CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle; Sorbonne Universités; 57 rue Cuvier, CP50 F-75005 Paris France
- Department of Biology; Lund University; Lund Sweden
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Polly PD, Lawing AM, Eronen JT, Schnitzler J. Processes of ecometric patterning: modelling functional traits, environments, and clade dynamics in deep time. Biol J Linn Soc Lond 2015. [DOI: 10.1111/bij.12716] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- P. David Polly
- Departments of Geological Sciences, Biology and Anthropology; Indiana University; 1001 E. 10th Street Bloomington IN 47405 USA
| | - A. Michelle Lawing
- Department of Ecosystem Science and Management; Spatial Sciences Laboratory; Texas A&M University; 1500 Research Parkway Suite 223 B 2120 TAMU College Station TX 77843-2120 USA
| | - Jussi T. Eronen
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F); Senckenberganlage 25 D-60325 Frankfurt am Main Germany
| | - Jan Schnitzler
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F); Senckenberganlage 25 D-60325 Frankfurt am Main Germany
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