Ecomorphological characterization of murines and non-arvicoline cricetids (Rodentia) from south-western Europe since the latest Middle Miocene to the Mio-Pliocene boundary (MN 7/8–MN13)

Autor: Fernando Blanco, Manuel Hernández Fernández, Iris Menéndez, María Ángeles Álvarez-Sierra, Ana Rosa Gómez Cano, Yuri Kimura
Přispěvatelé: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), European Commission, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Generalitat de Catalunya
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname
Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
Recercat: Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
E-Prints Complutense: Archivo Institucional de la UCM
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
PeerJ, Vol 5, p e3646 (2017)
E-Prints Complutense. Archivo Institucional de la UCM
PeerJ
Popis: Rodents are the most speciose group of mammals and display a great ecological diversity. Despite the greater amount of ecomorphological information compiled for extant rodent species, studies usually lack of morphological data on dentition, which has led to difficulty in directly utilizing existing ecomorphological data of extant rodents for paleoecological reconstruction because teeth are the most common or often the only micromammal fossils. Here, we infer the environmental ranges of extinct rodent genera by extracting habitat information from extant relatives and linking it to extinct taxa based on the phenogram of the cluster analysis, in which variables are derived from the principal component analysis on outline shape of the upper first molars. This phenotypic “bracketing” approach is particularly useful in the study of the fossil record of small mammals, which is mostly represented by isolated teeth. As a case study, we utilize extinct genera of murines and non-arvicoline cricetids, ranging from the Iberoccitanian latest middle Miocene to the Mio-Pliocene boundary, and compare our results thoroughly with previous paleoecological reconstructions inferred by different methods. The resultant phenogram shows a predominance of ubiquitous genera among the Miocene taxa, and the presence of a few forest specialists in the two rodent groups (Murinae and Cricetidae), along with the absence of open environment specialists in either group of rodents. This appears to be related to the absence of enduring grassland biomes in the Iberian Peninsula during the late Miocene. High consistency between our result and previous studies suggests that this phenotypic “bracketing” approach is a very useful tool.
This is a contribution from the Team of Palaeoclimatology, Macroecology and Macroevolution of Vertebrates (http://pmmvteam.tumblr.com/) of the Complutense University of Madrid as a part of the Research Group UCM 910607 on Evolution of Cenozoic Mammals and Continental Palaeoenvironments. Iris Menéndez was funded by a predoctoral grant from the Complutense University of Madrid (BOUC UCM 17-5-2016 (CT27/16-CT28/16)). Dr Yuri Kimura was funded by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists Start-up JSPS KAKENHI JP15H06884. Partial financial support was received from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, through the projects CGL2006-01773/BTE, CGL2010-19116/BOS, CGL2011-28877, and CGL2015-68333-P (MINECO/FEDER, UE) and the CERCA program (Generalitat de Catalunya). There was no additional external funding received for this study.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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