Salwa Hamad
Research Mentor: Jie Geng
Mentor Department: Earth and Environmental Science, LSA
Author(s): Jie Geng, Salwa Hamad
Session: Session 2 (10:00 AM – 10:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 127
Abstract
One of the main topics studied in paleontology is how animals changed over time to adapt to their diets. Different tooth shapes suggest adaptations for grazing, hunting, or omnivory. The success rate of nutrient digestion and food processing has affected dental morphology. Since teeth survive for long periods of time in the fossil record, previous studies have mostly used tooth morphology to predict feeding behavior across large taxonomic groups. Research has demonstrated that these broad relationships typically fade away and don’t apply at smaller scales, such as the species or individual level, because animals with similar tooth shapes may have consumed different meals. Due to this limitation, scientists are looking for different approaches that offer more certain proof of diet. A great study to investigate these limitations is the fauna of La Venta, Colombia, which dates back to the Middle Miocene (~16–11 million years ago). In this region, the dental anatomy of extinct ungulates varied from rhino-like toxodontids having high-crowned teeth associated with grazing on rough grasses, while pig-like litopterns had low, rounded cusps that suggest a wider, maybe omnivorous diet. The goal of this project is to use tooth microwear analysis—the study of small scratches and scars produced during chewing—to directly correlate to dietary behaviors. By examining the microwear patterns on epoxy casts of ungulate teeth, this study will confirm morphology-based food hypotheses and provide a more detailed understanding of Miocene ungulate ecology.
