Dear MARMAM Community,
My co-authors and I are pleased to share the link to our most recently
published article in the Scientific Reports entitled "The better to eat you
with: morphological disparity and enamel ultrastructure in odontocetes".
You can access it here: https://rdcu.be/dn112
ABSTRACTVariations in the shape and size of teeth have been associated with
changes in enamel ultrastructure across odontocetes. Characterizing these
features in extinct taxa can elucidate their functional morphology and feeding
strategy, while also shedding light into macroevolutionary patterns during the
evolutionary history of cetaceans. This study aimed to (1) describe the enamel
and dentine ultrastructure of the Early Miocene odontocetes Notocetus
vanbenedeni and Phoberodon arctirostris from Patagonia (Argentina) and (2)
quantify tooth and enamel ultrastructure morphological disparity among
odontocetes. Enamel was predominantly prismatic, thin in the anterior tooth of
N. vanbenedeni and P. arctirostris; whilst thick on the posterior tooth of N.
vanbenedeni. Together with skull morphology, data suggests a raptorial feeding
strategy for P. arctirostris and a combination suction feeding method for N.
vanbenedeni. Statistical analyses supported these inferences, indicating that
enamel characters are useful for paleoecological research. Morphological
disparity analyses showed that extant odontocetes occupy a larger morphospace
and have more disparate morphologies, whilst extinct odontocetes were more
similar among each other than with the extant group. There was no clear
phylogenetic-based grouping, suggesting that tooth and enamel ultrastructure
disparity were mainly driven by ecological pressures. These results highlight
enamel ultrastructure as a source for broader-scale paleoecological studies in
cetaceans.
If you have any questions, you can contact me at vigl...@cenpat-conicet.gob.ar
Best wishes,
Mariana
---Mariana Viglino (she/her/ella)
Grupo de Paleontología y Paleoambientes
del Neógeno Marino Patagónico
IPGP - CCT CONICET-CENPATBvd. Brown 2915 - U9120ACD
Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina
Tel: (+54) 0280-4883184 - Int: 1322
Fax: (+54) 0280-4883543
viglinomari...@yahoo.com.ar
vigl...@cenpat-conicet.gob.ar
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