Dental Microwear Texture Analysis of Varswater Bovids and Early Pliocene Paleoenvironments of Langebaanweg,Western Cape Province,South Africa |
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Authors: | Peter S Ungar Gildas Merceron Robert S Scott |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Old Main 330, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA;(2) Biozentrum Grindel and Zoological Museum, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany |
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Abstract: | The extensive early Pliocene mammalian assemblages at Langebaanweg hold the potential to provide important information about
paleoenvironments of the southwestern tip of Africa, an area that today consititutes the Fynbos Biome. We here add to a growing
body of literature on the paleoenviornments of the site with an examination of dental microwear textures of bovids from the
Varswater Formation. Microwear texture analysis is a new, automated and repeatable approach that measures whole surfaces in
three dimensions without observer error. A study of extant ruminants indicates that grazers have more anisotropic microwear
surface textures, whereas browsers have more complex microwear surface textures. Fossil bovids recovered from the Muishond
Fontein Pelletal Phosphorite Member vary in their microwear textures, with some taxa falling within the extant browser range,
some closer to extant grazers, and others in between. These results are consistent with scenarios suggesting mosaic habitats
including fynbos vegetation, some (probably C3) grasses, and woodland elements when these fossils were accumulated. |
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Keywords: | Dental microwear Bovid diets Langebaanweg paleoecology Paleoenvironments |
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