Skeletal and Dental Development Preserve Evidence of Energetic Stress in the Moose of Isle Royale
Autor: | C.E. Rinaldi, William J. Ripple, Christopher T. Brown, B. Van Valkenburgh |
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Rok vydání: | 2019 |
Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Ungulate Population Zoology 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Population density 03 medical and health sciences stomatognathic system medicine education 030304 developmental biology 0303 health sciences education.field_of_study Enamel paint Dentition Osteology biology 15. Life on land Tooth enamel biology.organism_classification Metapodial stomatognathic diseases medicine.anatomical_structure visual_art visual_art.visual_art_medium |
Popis: | Food shortages can leave diagnostic, and in the case of the dentition, irreversible changes in mineralized tissue that persist into historical and fossil records. Consequently, developmental defects of tooth enamel might be used to track ungulate population irruption but dental tissue’s capacity for preserving historical population density changes has yet to be investigated in wild populations. We test the ability of enamel defects, mandible and metapodial lengths to track changes in the well-known fluctuating moose population of Isle Royale National Park. Our study demonstrates that 1) a moose density threshold exists on the island above which there is a significant decrease in mandible and metatarsus length and a concomitant increase in enamel hypoplasias, 2) food limitation has a more pronounced effect on male than female skeletal growth, and 3) combined data from tooth enamel hypoplasias and bone lengths reflect the relative density of this ungulate population, and should be broadly applicable to other ungulate osteological samples. Developmental defects in dental enamel were among the highest recorded in a wild population, and even during low-density intervals the population density of Isle Royale moose has been high enough to negatively impact skeletal and dental growth, indicating the comparatively poor health of this century-old ecosystem |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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