RT Journal Article
T1 Dietary adaptations and tooth morphology in squirrels: Insights from extant and extinct species
A1 Menéndez González, Iris
A1 Zelditch, Miriam L.
A1 Tejero Cicuéndez, Hector
A1 Swiderski, Donald L.
A1 Carro Rodríguez, Patricia María
A1 Hernández Fernández, Manuel
A1 Álvarez Sierra, María De Los Ángeles
A1 Gómez Cano, Ana Rosa
AB An important part of the ecological evolution of many lineages consists of adaptations to new diets as climate and available resources changed. In this study, we inferred when squirrels adapted morphologically to new diets by analyzing data from both extant and extinct species. We relied on the relationship between tooth morphology in extant squirrels and their dietary preferences to infer the diets of extinct species. To achieve this, we employed two approaches, namely geometric morphometrics and Elliptic Fourier analyses, to measure the outline of the fourth lower premolar (p4) in occlusal view. We then used both datasets to infer the diets of extinct species. Additionally, we used phylogenetic comparative methods on extant data to explore the evolution of diet and tooth size, identifying potential drivers of squirrel morphological evolution in the context of past climatic changes. Our findings indicate that the morphology of squirrel teeth has been maintained through the evolutionary history of most lineages, but that it also has changed in some lineages as a result of adaptations to particularly demanding diets, sometimes mediated by climatic factors, which have played a crucial role in shaping tooth morphology. Furthermore, we demonstrated that both geometric morphometrics and Elliptic Fourier analyses can yield a similar percentage of correct classifications and congruent dietary inferences. This study provides valuable insights into the macroevolutionary changes in squirrels and provides further evidence of the usefulness of tooth morphology for inferring the diets of extinct mammalian species.
PB Elsevier
SN 0031-0182
YR 2023
FD 2023-11-01
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/88140
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/88140
LA eng
NO Universidad Complutense de Madrid
NO American Museum of Natural History
NO Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
NO MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033
NO European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR
NO Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades-Agencia Estatal de Investigación
DS Docta Complutense
RD 6 abr 2025