Dental Wear Analyses Research Articles

The Magdalenian horse (Equus ferus arcelini) from Roc-aux-Sorciers (Angles-sur-l’Anglin, France): Seasonality and paleoecology

Roc-aux-Sorciers is one of the most emblematic sites of Magdalenian culture, particularly known for its bas-relief and high-relief sculpted frieze depicting animals and humans, dated to the Middle Magdalenian. The stratigraphic sequence contains archaeological deposits corresponding to the occupations from the Middle Magdalenian, overlain by deposits from the Upper Magdalenian. The study of the horse Equus ferus arcelini, the preferentially hunted species, was conducted through various approaches (paleontological, zooarchaeological, palaeoenvironmental, dental wear analyses) to highlight a possible adaptation of these animal populations to the climatic and environmental changes recorded within the Magdalenian sequence, and to better understand the subsistence strategies of Magdalenian groups towards this fauna. In the Middle Magdalenian, in a steppe environment under cold and dry climate conditions, the site was repeatedly occupied for long durations by Magdalenian sculptors. Seasonality data indicate horse hunting in all seasons, suggesting sedentary to semi-sedentary equine populations in the territory. The results are consistent with dental wear analyses. In the Upper Magdalenian, the climate was cold and wet, and the environment more diversified and semi-open. Dental wear analyses show that horses were adapted to a more diversified and less abrasive diet compared to those of the Middle Magdalenian. Occupations were characterised as brief and seasonal.

Death at the water hole: Opportunistic hunting and scavenging events in the upper sequence of Middle Paleolithic Nesher Ramla, Israel

Distinguishing between selective and opportunistic hunting is a major challenge in Paleolithic archaeology, requiring the comparison of the human hunting record to the usually unknown natural prey abundance. Open-air hunting camps are ubiquitous in the Eurasian Middle Paleolithic (MP) record, alongside cave sites, and are often dominated by large-bodied species. In the Levant, MP faunal records differ between caves and open-air sites: Caves are dominated by mountain gazelle and fallow deer, while open-air sites are more aurochs-dominated. This discrepancy can be explained by transport patterns, but whether the abundance of aurochs in open-air sites is due to deliberate targeting or natural abundance in the landscape is unclear. The Nesher Ramla open-air site is a natural sinkhole in central Israel with an 8-m-deep MP sequence. Detailed zooarchaeological, dental wear, and isotope analyses of the upper sequence fauna found a highly diverse assemblage dominated by medium-sized ungulates in the uppermost phases (Units I and IIa). Results concerning ungulate dietary niches and isotopic signatures demonstrate that animals from different biomes and topographies congregated at the site. Evidence of human butchery is infrequent and fewer than carnivore modifications. Several articulated vertebral columns attest to in situ preservation. Our results demonstrate that the Nesher Ramla's uppermost sequence formed primarily under natural conditions, suggesting that it was a site of opportunistic hunting by humans and carnivores, probably targeting ungulates that came to the sinkhole to drink. Therefore, we consider this assemblage representative of the site's “natural” environment and use it as a benchmark for comparing assemblages and hunting strategies. Thus, we observe a clear difference between our case study and those recovered from the site's lower layers (Unit IIB and below) and other open-air sites. For the first time, we can show that the abundance of large bovines in MP open-air sites is not necessarily due to their abundance in the environment but to deliberate human planning and selective hunting.

Ecology of large ungulates in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula during the Upper Palaeolithic through stable isotopes and tooth wear analysis

The northeastern Iberian Peninsula acted as a refuge zone during the Late Pleistocene where the persistence of terrestrial ecosystems could provide hunter-gatherers with large prey, mainly horse (Equus ferus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus). Isotopic (δ13C, δ18O, δ15N) and dental wear (mesowear and microwear) analyses have been applied on the remains of both species from the archaeological sites of Arbreda and Bora Gran at Serinyà (Girona), where evidence of human occupation from the Mousterian to the Magdalenian has been attested. The incremental enamel analysis on horse teeth revealed seasonal variation in carbonate δ18O but no detectable change in carbonate δ13C values, reflecting a rather stable diet and habitat over the year. Nevertheless, higher inter-individual than intra-individual contrast in carbonate δ13C indicate different environmental conditions from one individual to another for each stratigraphic unit. In red deer teeth, seasonal signals in enamel carbonate δ13C and δ18O demonstrated mirrored trends. Further, red deer show higher δ13C values than those of horses, both in enamel carbonate and bone collagen, as well as higher variability in mesowear and microwear scores, reflecting a mixed-feeding habit. Despite a strong grazing signal in mesowear and microwear, the lower δ13C values for horses suggest a higher dependence on relatively more humid habitats than red deer, which likely foraged in dryer environments with xeric plants during winter. These differences in ecological partitioning are particularly well illustrated in distinct collagen δ13C and δ15N values during the harsh climatic conditions of the Final Gravettian coeval to the GS-3 or Last Glacial Maximum. The capacity of red deer to adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions contrasts with the niche persistence of horse allowed by the availability of mosaic habitat.

Taphonomy of the fauna and chert assemblages from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Vajo Salsone, Eastern Italian Alps

The Vajo Salsone site is located at an altitude of 376m a.s.l. on the right slope of the Valpantena valley, in the Veneto Pre-Alps, north of the town of Verona. The site was discovered in 2017 during the construction of a truckable road. It is a small and narrow karst cavity filled with Pleistocene sediments that yield abundant Middle Palaeolithic artefacts and faunal remains, often coated by carbonate encrustations. The lithic assemblage shows the predominance of the Levallois method and is characterised by a large number of retouched elements, including foliated points. These artefacts, typical of the Late Middle Palaeolithic period in central and south-eastern Europe, make Vajo Salsone an exceptional case, as their recovery is rather sporadic west of the Balkan Peninsula and south of the Alps. The fauna is dominated by ungulates, the most abundant being the red deer followed by roe deer, chamois and elk. Among the carnivores, wolf is common, while fox and bear are rare. This fauna suggests an environment characterised by open glades and closed forests, with a discontinuous presence of alpine grasslands and wetlands. Taphonomic analysis of the bone surfaces is complicated by the presence of concretions on most of the remains, which also show a high degree of fragmentation. Post-depositional fractures are common, and weathering is light. Only cervid bones show anthropogenic modifications related to hunting and hominin exploitation such as cut marks, scraping, impacts and burnt modifications. Some long bone diaphysis bear marks testifying to the use of these fragments as retouchers for flint artefacts. Such use has been evidenced at other Middle Palaeolithic sites in the area. Furthermore, the good state of preservation of the occlusal surface enamel of the cervid teeth allowed us to carry out meso and microwear analyses which provided data on seasonality and site occupation. With regard to dental wear analysis, the red deer from Vajo Salsone had mesowear suggesting a mixed feeding and grazing diets, whereas microwear analysis showed that the individuals had a diet between mixed feeding and browsing. The taphonomic study of the site has been integrated by X–RFS analysis of the alterations occurred to the lithic artefacts, which include deep patination and the formation of calcareous crusts. All the data presented here are consistent with the hypothesis of a short-distance displacement of the material from a single archaeological deposit possibly related to human occupation during the warm season.

Herbivore dental wear analysis since the end of the middle Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene in different archaeological contexts of Morocco

Herbivore dental wear analysis since the end of the middle Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene in different archaeological contexts of Morocco

War Horses and Equine Herd Feeding Management at the End of the Third Century BC: New Insights from Pech Maho (Southern France)

ABSTRACT The emporion of Pech Maho was destroyed after a warlike event at the end of the third century BC. Shortly after that, around 200 BC, the site was resettled. This reuse is characterised above all by massive deposits of equid carcasses in various locations around the city. The conditions of these deposits are investigated in this paper. We focus on examining several biological parameters (weight, age and sex) of the equid population, as well as their feeding habits, using three different proxies: stable isotope, dental meso- and microwear. This interdisciplinarity gives us access to the overall equid diet, as well as to the diet during the last phases of their lives. This population is largely dominated by small size young adult males. Isotopic as well as morphometric analyses indicate that they were bred in various locations before being brought to Pech Maho. Dental wear analyses show that they experienced the same feeding throughout their lives and just before their death. The animals were all slaughtered within a short period of time. This study illustrates the advantages of combining proxies in order to enhance our understanding of the life and death conditions of Iron Age equids.

New quantitative method for dental wear analysis of small mammals

The application of dental wear study to murids has always been ruled out because of their omnivorous diet, which does not leave significant wear on the dentition. Nevertheless, in our work we select Apodemus sylvaticus (wood mouse) as the object of study for several reasons: its seasonal diet, its ability to resist the gastric juices of predators, the fact that it has not undergone major morphological changes since its appearance 3 million years ago, and its widespread distribution throughout much of Europe and part of Africa. The importance of this work lies in the modifications we make to the dental wear methodology for its application to murids. These enable us to obtain quantitative data on the entire tooth surface. The sample chosen was a total of 75 lower first molars from two different archaeological sites: Teixoneres cave and Xaragalls cave. The chronology of the samples chosen ranges from Marine Isotope Stages 5–3. The data obtained reveal that the part of the tooth that shows most wear is the distal part (entoconid). Furthermore, the results provide us with relevant information on the types of accumulations of remains in the caves (short vs. long term), as well as on the seasonality of Neanderthal occupations during the Upper Pleistocene (MIS5-3) of the northeastern Iberian Peninsula.

Controlled feeding experiments with juvenile alligators reveal microscopic dental wear texture patterns associated with hard-object feeding

Dental wear analyses are classically applied to mammals because they have evolved heterodont dentitions for sophisticated mastication. Recently, several studies have shown a correlation between pre-assigned and analytically inferred diet preferences in extant reptiles through dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA), a method using quantitative assessment of microscopic wear marks to reconstruct the diet material properties. The first tentative applications of DMTA to extinct reptiles have followed. However, for large and small mammals, microwear analyses have undergone a long time of ground-truthing through direct feeding observations, stomach content analyses, and feeding experiments. Such data are currently lacking for reptiles, but are necessary to further extend DMTA, especially to Archosauria, as the application to dinosaurs could be of great interest to the scientific community. We herein present data from a pilot feeding experiment with five juvenile American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis). Each individual received a diet of assumed different hardness for ~4 months: crocodylian pellets (control), sardines, quails, rats, or crawfish. All individuals initially received the same pellet diet, and we found them to show similar dental microwear texture patterns before they were switched to their designated experimental diet. From the first feeding bout on, dental microwear textures differed across the diets. The crawfish-feeder showed consistently higher surface complexity, followed by the rat-feeder. Quail- and fish-feeding resulted in similar wear signatures, with low complexity. Fast tooth replacement and selective tooth use likely affected microwear formation, but we were able to detect a general hard (crawfish and rat) versus soft (quail and fish) DMTA signature. Such patterns can support the identification of hard-object feeding in the fossil record.

A multidisciplinary study of Iberian Chalcolithic dogs

Domesticated dogs have been present in the Iberian Peninsula long before other domesticated species, back to the late Palaeolithic period. Their origin is still uncertain, but dogs were already well established during the Chalcolithic period (ca. 5000–4000 BP). This study employed a multidisciplinary approach comprising osteometric, radiographic and palaeogenomic analyses to characterize Chalcolithic Iberian Canis remains. Two Chalcolithic archaeological sites – Leceia, Oeiras, in Portugal, and El Casetón de la Era, Villalba de los Alcores, Valladolid, in Spain – were the main focus of this study. Osteometric and odontometric data from eleven other sites in Iberia were also included. Osteometric results show signs of phenotypic variability, likely the result of human-driven selective pressure. Dental radiographic and dental wear analyses allowed age at death estimation for four individuals (two juvenile and two adults). Three Chalcolithic Iberian dogs had their mitogenomes resequenced and the mitochondrial DNA analysis allowed to assign each individual to two of the major known haplogroups – A and C. Molecular sex infered by the chromosomeX/chromosome1 coverage ratio allowed to identify one female and two males. This study unveils some aspects of the Iberian Chalcolithic dogs: these dogs already exhibited various morphotypes whose profiles might be associated to the performance of certain tasks, as well as mitogenomes of two distinct lineages that help tracking the evolutionary paths of Iberian dogs.

Dental wear patterns reveal dietary ecology and season of death in a historical chimpanzee population.

Dental wear analyses have been widely used to interpret the dietary ecology in primates. However, it remains unclear to what extent a combination of wear analyses acting at distinct temporal scales can be beneficial in interpreting the tooth use of primates with a high variation in their intraspecific dietary ecology. Here, we combine macroscopic tooth wear (occlusal fingerprint analysis, long-term signals) with microscopic 3D surface textures (short-term signals) exploring the tooth use of a historical western chimpanzee population from northeastern Liberia with no detailed dietary records. We compare our results to previously published tooth wear and feeding data of the extant and continually monitored chimpanzees of Taї National Park in Ivory Coast. Macroscopic tooth wear results from molar wear facets of the Liberian population indicate only slightly less wear when compared to the Taї population. This suggests similar long-term feeding behavior between both populations. In contrast, 3D surface texture results show that Liberian chimpanzees have many and small microscopic wear facet features that group them with those Taї chimpanzees that knowingly died during dry periods. This coincides with historical accounts, which indicate that local tribes poached and butchered the Liberian specimens during dust-rich dry periods. In addition, Liberian females and males differ somewhat in their 3D surface textures, with females having more microscopic peaks, smaller hill and dale areas and slightly rougher wear facet surfaces than males. This suggests a higher consumption of insects in Liberian females compared to males, based on similar 3D surface texture patterns previously reported for Taї chimpanzees. Our study opens new options for uncovering details of feeding behaviors of chimpanzees and other living and fossil primates, with macroscopic tooth wear tracing the long-term dietary and environmental history of a single population and microscopic tooth wear addressing short-term changes (e.g. seasonality).

Reliability of qualitative occlusal tooth wear evaluation using an intraoral scanner: A pilot study.

Dental wear analysis through the use of an intraoral scanner is a reality of modern dentistry. This study aimed to investigate the reliability of qualitative tooth wear evaluation through three-dimensional images captured with an intraoral scanner and compared to clinical and photographic examinations. Eighteen adult volunteers of both genders (18 to 55 years old) were submitted to clinical exams, intraoral photographs and intraoral scanning protocol using an optical scanner (TRIOS® Pod, 3Shape, Copenhagen, Denmark). Occlusal tooth wear, from second to second premolars, was measured by two evaluators and reevaluated after 30 days, according to a slight modification of the method described by Mockers et al. Weighted Kappa was used to measure intra and inter-examiner agreement. The Friedman test was used to verify the differences among methods. Random and systematic errors were assessed using Bland-Altman plots. All statistical analysis was performed with p<0.05. There was a substantive agreement for clinical (K = 0.75) and photographic exams (K = 0.79) and a moderate agreement for intraoral scanner analysis (K = 0.60) for inter-examiner evaluation. A substantial intra-examiner agreement was obtained for both evaluators. No significant difference between the methods was observed (p = 0.7343 for examiner 1 and 0.8007 for examiner 2). The Bland-Altman plot confirmed no systematic errors between the methods and a random error of 0.25 with the scanner method when compared to clinical assessment. All three methods showed reliability in qualitative occlusal tooth wear evaluation. Intraoral scanning seems to be a sound and reliable tool to evaluate tooth wear when compared to traditional methods, considering the lower inter-examiner agreement and the inherent limitations of this pilot study. Further research will be necessary in order to achieve more robust evidence.

Complex food preference analysis of the Late Cretaceous (Santonian) lizards from Iharkút (Bakony Mountains, Hungary)

ABSTRACT The Upper Cretaceous Iharkút vertebrate locality (Bakony Mountains, Hungary) provided a diverse lizard fauna. In order to infer their food preference, jaw and tooth morphology, as well as dental macro- and microwear, were analysed. Due to preservation, only specimens of three taxa (Chromatogenys, Bicuspidon, ‘Scincomorpha indet. A’) were studied. Extant lizards, including omnivores, durophages, insectivores, molluscivores and a herbivore, were used as analogies for interpretation. Based on morphological and dental wear studies, Chromatogenys seems to have consumed and processed hard objects regularly with its enlarged posterior teeth. In contrast, Bicuspidon with its complex bicuspid teeth might have fed on both softer and harder food items, and according to dental wear analysis, its diet can be placed between herbivory and insectivory. The sharply pointed teeth and jaw morphology of ‘Scincomorpha indet. A’ are comparable to recent insectivorous taxa though tooth crown morphology is most similar to burrowing species. This investigation is considered as a pilot study providing insight into the complexity of food chains of the Late Cretaceous Iharkút terrestrial communities. Furthermore, our results clearly demonstrate that the two-dimensional dental microwear analysis works well on the small (tooth crown diameter less than 1 mm) teeth of both extinct and extant lizards.

Dental wear analyses of Middle Pleistocene site of Lunel-Viel (Hérault, France): Did Equus and Bos live in a wetland?

This study presents comparison of dental meso and micro-wear analyses on Middle Pleistocene equids and bovids from Lunel-Viel I (Hérault, France) with their extant counterpart from Camargue. Previous paleoenvironnemental observations hypothesize a great proximity between the Camargue wetland and Lunel-Viel environment. Teeth wear analyses provides an innovative approach to describe eco-ethological parameters, such as diet and biotope.Camarque's horses and cattle diets are similar and characterized by a mixed feeding. Lunel-Viel I's Equus had a grass-dominated mixed feeding diet while Bos had a browsing diet. The differences in the feeding habits and resource partitioning between the two taxa in the two locations suggest two different biotopes. While the extant sample still need to be completed, preliminary observations indicate that it is very unlikely bovids and equids from Lunel-Viel inhabited a biotope like nowadays Camague.This study highlights the contributions of a combined comparative approach and adds new data to analyse the paleodietary patterns of extinct ungulates.

Dietary traits of ungulates in northeastern Iberian Peninsula: Did these Neanderthal preys show adaptive behaviour to local habitats during the Middle Palaeolithic?

Diet is closely connected to the habitat exploited by ungulates and is one of the main links between them and the surrounding environment. When climatic fluctuations modified the vegetal coverture and habitat, ungulates' dietary behaviours and ecological niches could have been impacted severely. During the Middle Palaeolithic, the Mediterranean peninsulas were known to be climatic refuges because they seemed less susceptible to these changes. However, the altitude or latitude of a given site may have resulted in local particularities that could have influenced the vegetal composition and therefore the feeding behaviour of ungulates from the same region. In the present research we investigate whether these variables necessitated adaptive changes in the feeding behaviours of ungulates hunted by Neanderthals through the study of two archaeological sites, Arbreda Cave (Serinyà, Girona, Spain) and Teixoneres Cave (Moià, Barcelona, Spain). We use a combined analysis of dental wear (meso- and microwear) and dental cementum analysis of Cervus elaphus, Equus ferus, and Equus hydruntinus teeth. Dental wear reflects the immediate and average annual dietary traits of ungulates as well as the environmental conditions in the surroundings. Dental cementum analysis allows accurately identifying the season of ungulate death and linking an individual's dietary preferences with the seasonal conditions in its last moments of life. As results, red deer at both sites were mixed-feeders in the annual cycle. A slight increase in grass consumption was identified during winter for populations from sub-unit IIIa of Teixoneres Cave. Horse and wild ass based their diet on grasses, but the latter showed seasonal adaptation toward a mixed consumption of grasses and concentrate resources (i.e. leaves, shrubs, forbs, and other woody plants). The seasonal feeding adaptations observed for some of the studied species did not strongly influence their general dietary trends because they kept feeding on the same resources annually.

Combined dental wear and cementum analyses in ungulates reveal the seasonality of Neanderthal occupations in Covalejos Cave (Northern Iberia)

We propose for the first time the use of the combination of two high-resolution techniques, dental wear (meso- and microwear) and dental cementum analyses, to gain a better understanding of Neanderthal subsistence strategies and occupational patterns. Dental wear analysis provides information not only on ungulate palaeodiet and palaeoenvironments but also on hunting time and seasons. Dental cementum analysis allows the accurate determination of the age and season at death of a prey. Our study has focused on the Cantabrian region and has applied both methods to investigate the Mousterian faunal assemblages in Covalejos Cave. Identification of the ungulate palaeodiet reveals information on the environmental conditions of the studied region. Moreover, it may facilitate observation on the evolution of both palaeodiet and palaeoenvironment throughout the site sequence. Results show a general stability in the palaeoenvironmental conditions and in the ungulate palaeodiet throughout the Mousterian sequence; this finding may be attributed to the role of the area as a climate refuge, and slight differences in levels 8, 7 and 4 suggest long- or short-term but repeated Neanderthal occupations at different seasons in the annual cycle.

Determining onset of significant facial pathology using dental wear and microwear texture analysis: a case study from the Middle Archaic (~5,500 BP) of Indiana.

Paleopathologists face complicated presentations of osteological conditions that ac-crued over a considerable period of ill-health. Determining the relative sequence of symptoms and how long the individual lived with them is critical to understanding disease onset and progression in the body and may help to identify a specific disease. This paper describes an atypical presentation of the dentition associated with a 5,000-year-old case of treponemal disease. This circumstance led to a cessation of macrowear, which allowed for an estimation of the age when the jaw began to profoundly deform. This paper also summarizes molar microwear texture analysis (DMTA) that was employed in order to determine if the diet of the victim prior to death was con-sistent with other people from the site.

Forest Floor Leaf Cover as a Barrier for Dust Accumulation in Tai National Park: Implications for Primate Dental Wear Studies

Mastication causes distinct use wear scars on teeth that can aid in dietary reconstructions of fossils. However, the role played by exogenous grit in dental wear complicates the association between wear and diet. Dental wear analyses often assume that foods closer to the soil contain more exogenous grit than those in the forest canopy. Yet, a layer of leaf litter covering many forest floors may trap grit from the soil, keeping it from settling on surrounding vegetation or becoming part of atmospheric dust. Cercocebus atys is frequently referenced in dental wear studies because of its dependence on hard Sacoglottis gabonensis seeds collected from the forest floor. Here we examine quantities of dust deposition at different forest levels and assess its potential role in wear patterns observed in C. atys. We collected grit from S. gabonensis seeds (N = 64) found under the leaf litter and compared them to grit samples taken from the surface of leaves at different forest strata (N = 450) in Ivory Coast’s Tai National Park. Seeds underneath the leaf litter were coated with significantly more grit than leaves above the leaf material and we conclude that leaf litter is a significant barrier to grit particles originating from the soil. Given that evidence points to a significant difference in grit amount between foodstuffs on the ground and foods near the ground, the findings lead to a prediction of differences in dental wear patterns between purely arboreal foragers and those incorporating terrestrial food sources.

Ungulate dietary adaptations and palaeoecology of the Middle Pleistocene site of Fontana Ranuccio (Anagni, Central Italy)

The Middle Pleistocene site of Fontana Ranuccio (Anagni Basin, Central Italy) has yielded nearly 25,000 remains belonging to large and small vertebrates, including four isolated teeth of Homo sp., and a rich lithic assemblage containing bone tools. Here we provide new dental wear analyses of the ungulate community to improve the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction for the site. Analyses indicate a mostly browsing diet for the cervids and a grazing diet for the perissodactyls Stephanorhinus sp. and Equus cf. E. mosbachensis, suggesting a range of habitats that spanned from forests to open grasslands. A discrepancy between mesowear and microwear results is observed in the case of the bovid, Bos primigenius; this can be tentatively explained as resulting from a temporal switch towards a sub-optimal diet, possibly reflecting the effects of marked seasonality. Findings shed new light on the structure of the 400 kyr ecosystems that existed during the early occupation of Homo in Europe.

Feeding ecology of Tragelaphini (Bovidae) from the Shungura Formation, Omo Valley, Ethiopia: Contribution of dental wear analyses

To better understand the environmental conditions that prevailed in the Plio-Pleistocene Shungura Formation, Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia, we analyze the feeding preferences of Tragelaphini, the third most common tribe of Shungura bovids. Molar mesowear and dental microwear texture analyses were applied to three species (Tragelaphus rastafari, T. nakuae, and T. gaudryi) and body mass estimates were calculated for the T. rastafari-nakuae lineage to test whether dietary shifts were linked to body mass changes. We compare our results with previous work on stable carbon isotopes (δ13C) of enamel, which indicated that tragelaphins from the Shungura Formation possessed dietary flexibility. We found that the both the T. rastafari-nakuae lineage and T. gaudryi maintained a mixed feeding dietary niche, with varying proportions of C3 versus C4 inputs, from ~3.6 to >2 Ma. Our results show that T. rastafari consumed more browse than its descendant, T. nakuae, which was a mixed feeder consuming a greater proportion of C4 dicots ~ 2.8 Ma. The T. rastafari-T. nakuae dietary shift may reflect environmental changes in the Shungura Formation during this time, but appears to be offset from body mass increases in this lineage, which occurred gradually through the Plio-Pleistocene. This study highlights the importance of a multi-proxy approach to precisely determine the dietary ecologies of extinct bovids and points to how each proxy offers a slightly different perspective on the ecology of fossil organisms.

Palaeoecology of cave bears as evidenced by dental wear analysis: a review of methods and recent findings

The study of dental wear was first used years ago to infer the palaeoecology of fossil mammals and in particular their diet. Results depend predominantly on the scale of the analysis used. Analyses of dental macrowear, mesowear or microwear do not provide the same type of dietary information, be it about the seasonal, annual or lifetime diet. This contribution focuses on emblematic species, cave bears (Ursidae), in particular Ursus spelaeus spelaeus. Methods used by previous researchers to infer their dietary preferences and thus their palaeoecology are reviewed and compared. This review is complemented by an analysis of several specimens of cave bears from the Goyet cave in Belgium, using dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA), a methodology widely applied for reconstructing palaeodiets. Three main conclusions are drawn here: (1) DMTA is the method that provides the most precise palaeobiological inferences; (2) during the pre-dormancy period, cave bears show dietary flexibility; (3) dental wear alone might be not sufficient to provide a complete reconstruction of the cave bear palaeodiet.