Exploring fossils
The discovery of extinct fossil communities leads us to ask many questions to understand the relationships between them and their habitat.
This means testing hypotheses and exploring present-day communities.
All this enables us to propose reinterpretations of the fossil record that are both more robust and informed.
Dietary niches of terrestrial cercopithecines from the Plio-Pleistocene Shungura Formation in Ethiopia: evidence from dental microwear texture analysis
The Shungura Formation in Ethiopia is the most complete stratigraphic and paleontological record of the African Plio-Pleistocene.
This study aims to explore the feeding ecology of two terrestrial papionines, Papio and Theropithecus from this formation, using dental microwear texture analysis.
Two aspects were investigated: differences in diet between the extinct genera and their extant relatives, and possible dietary fluctuations over time.
Martin et al., 2018:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32092-z
The feeding ecology of Eucladoceros: a tool for tracking regional environmental variations in Europe during the Lower Pleistocene
The large cervid Eucladoceros was abundant in Europe during the Lower Pleistocene, a period corresponding to a succession of glacial-interglacial cycles characterized by a general trend towards global cooling, with increasing aridity and seasonality.
Using dental microwear texture analysis, we explore the dietary plasticity of Eucladoceros and how this reflects Lower Pleistocene climatic variations.
Berlioz et al., 2018:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631068317300908
Contribution of dental microwear analysis to the exploration of the past environment of the Shungura Formation (Omo Valley, Ethiopia)
Analysis of the dietary preferences of a group of bovids to better understand the Plio-Pleistocene environment of the Shungura Formation in the Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia.
Blondel et al., 2018:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018217301700
Study of herbivore paleo-communities from 8 million years ago in northern Greece
This study aimed to explore the past environment present at the end of the Miocene at a site in northern Greece by combining dental microwear analyses of equids and bovids with studies of phytoliths found in site sediments.
Merceron et al., 2016:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001669951600005X
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