Dietary ecology of Murinae (Muridae, Rodentia): a geometric morphometric approach.

Autor: Ana Rosa Gómez Cano, Manuel Hernández Fernández, M Ángeles Alvarez-Sierra
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2013
Předmět:
Zdroj: PLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 11, p e79080 (2013)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0079080
Popis: Murine rodents represent a highly diverse group, which displays great ecological versatility. In the present paper we analyse the relationship between dental morphology, on one hand, using geometric morphometrics based upon the outline of first upper molar and the dietary preference of extant murine genera, on the other. This ecomorphological study of extant murine rodents demonstrates that dietary groups can be distinguished with the use of a quantitative geometric morphometric approach based on first upper molar outline. A discriminant analysis of the geometric morphometric variables of the first upper molars enables us to infer the dietary preferences of extinct murine genera from the Iberian Peninsula. Most of the extinct genera were omnivore; only Stephanomys showed a pattern of dental morphology alike that of the herbivore genera.
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