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13 December 2019 Dental microwear texture analysis and diet in caviomorphs (Rodentia) from the Serra do Mar Atlantic forest (Brazil)
Céline Robinet, Gildas Merceron, Adriana M. Candela, Laurent Marivaux
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Abstract

The Serra do Mar Atlantic forest (Brazil) shelters about 15 different species of caviomorph rodents and thus represents a unique opportunity to explore resource partitioning. We studied 12 species with distinct diets using dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA). Our results revealed differences (complexity, textural fill volume, and heterogeneity of complexity) among species with different dietary preferences, and among taxa sharing the same primary dietary components but not those with similar secondary dietary preferences (heterogeneity of complexity). We found three main dietary tendencies characterized by distinct physical properties: consumers of young leaves had low complexity; bamboo specialists, fruit and seed eaters, and omnivorous species, had intermediate values for complexity; grass, leaf, and aquatic vegetation consumers, had highly complex dental microwear texture. Dietary preferences and body mass explained a major part of the resource partitioning that presumably enables coexistence among these rodent species. DMTA was useful in assessing what foods contributed to resource partitioning in caviomorphs. Our database for extant caviomorph rodents is a prerequisite for interpretation of dental microwear texture of extinct caviomorph taxa, and thus for reconstructing their diets and better understanding the resource partitioning in paleocommunities and its role in the successful evolutionary history of this rodent group.

© 2020 American Society of Mammalogists, www.mammalogy.org
Céline Robinet, Gildas Merceron, Adriana M. Candela, and Laurent Marivaux "Dental microwear texture analysis and diet in caviomorphs (Rodentia) from the Serra do Mar Atlantic forest (Brazil)," Journal of Mammalogy 101(2), 386-402, (13 December 2019). https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz194
Received: 12 March 2019; Accepted: 14 November 2019; Published: 13 December 2019
KEYWORDS
ecology
microwear
resource partitioning
rodent
Serra do Mar
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