Dietary Specialization during the Evolution of Western Eurasian Hominoids and the Extinction of European Great Apes
De Miguel, Daniel (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)
Alba, David M.. (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)
Moyà Solà, Salvador (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)
Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats

Date:	2014
Abstract:	Given the central adaptive role of diet, paleodietary inference is essential for understanding the relationship between evolutionary and paleoenvironmental change. Here we rely on dental microwear analysis to investigate the role of dietary specialization in the diversification and extinction of Miocene hominoids from Western Eurasian between 14 and 7 Ma. New microwear results for five extinct taxa are analyzed together with previous data for other Western Eurasian genera. Except Pierolapithecus (that resembles hard-object feeders) and Oreopithecus (a soft-frugivore probably foraging opportunistically on other foods), most of the extinct taxa lack clear extant dietary analogues. They display some degee of sclerocarpy, which is most clearly expressed in Griphopithecus and Ouranopithecus (adapted to more open and arid environments), whereas Anoiapithecus, Dryopithecus and, especially, Hispanopithecus species apparently relied more strongly on soft-frugivory. Thus, contrasting with the prevailing sclerocarpic condition at the beginning of the Eurasian hominoid radiation, soft- and mixedfrugivory coexisted with hard-object feeding in the Late Miocene. Therefore, despite a climatic trend towards cooling and increased seasonality, a progressive dietary diversification would have occurred (probably due to competitive exclusion and increased environmental heterogeneity), although strict folivory did not evolve. Overall, our analyses support the view that the same dietary specializations that enabled Western Eurasian hominoids to face progressive climatic deterioration were the main factor ultimately leading to their extinction when more drastic paleoenvironmental changes took place.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2011−28681/BTE Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2011-27343 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación RYC-2009-04533 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad JCI-2011-1169 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2009/SGR-754
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	PloS one, Vol. 9, Issue 5 (May 2014) , art. e97442, ISSN 1932-6203

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097442
PMID: 24848272

13 p, 952.2 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles