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TITLE: Functional diversity within the Littleton fauna (early Paleocene), Colorado: evidence from body mass, tooth structure, and tooth wear
AUTHOR: Eric W. Dewar
JOURNAL: PaleoBios
PUBLISHED: Apr 15, 2003
NOTES: 23(1)
ABSTRACT: In this study, ecomorphological techniques, based primarily on the implications of body size and mastication, are used to model dental functional diversity of an earliest Tertiary paleocommunity. The Littleton fauna is a diverse assemblage ot mammals from early Paleocene strata of the Denver Formation of Colorado. This fauna falls within Interval-zone Pul, between the Mantua Lentil local fauna and the type Pucrcan localities of the San Juan Basin. The assemblage is composed of multituberculates, "proteutheres," archaic ungulates ("condylarths"), and one marsupial species, along with a less diverse lower vertebrate component. Inferences of dental function were made by combining measurements of tooth morphology and gross wear facets with estimates of body masses. These dental measurements are evaluated in terms of which mode of food fracture they would optimize. Two overall food type groups can be discerned by these criteria. A "soft tough" food group is identified by species with typically more gracile and sectorial teeth with variable degrees of abrasive wear, including Peradectes pusillus, Oxyclaenus n. sp., Conacodon harbourae, and Baioconodon n. sp. The medium sized species Alticonus gazini and Baioconodon denverensis are grouped into a "hard brittle" food group. They differ noticeably from the other medium sized species in morphology, particularly in their lower trigonid talonid relief, more rounded crest outlines, and similarity in degree of Phase I to Phase II wear and dentine exposure. Although it was expected that a mammalian assemblage present so soon after the Cretaceous Tertiary transition would have been tilled with insectivores or generalists, similar to the trophic patterns known from the Late Cretaceous, the taxa resident in this fauna were unexpectedly diverse in dental function.
COLLECTION: PaleoBios Archive Public
ID: 217

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    BNHM      University of California, Berkeley