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Poster De Conférence Année : 2017

Exploring the dietary plasticity of Eucladoceros ctenoides: what does its occurrence in the fossil record mean?

Résumé

Cervidae are often used as paleoenvironmental proxies during the early Pleistocene as they are particularly abundant and diversified during this period of Homo dispersal in Europe. This family has been used for long in the framework of environmental reconstructions, and the presence of deer in a fossil locality is traditionally interpreted as witnessing a significant tree cover in the habitat. Among cervids, the large deer Eucladoceros ctenoides is present through the whole Europe during the Villafranchian (3.5-1.1/1.0My) and presents a body mass similar to that of extant European Cervus elaphus. We explore for the first time the dietary plasticity of this emblematic extinct deer, through the analysis of dental microwear textures of 145 Eucladoceros ctenoides from seven early Pleistocene European localities. Considering the large body mass of Eucladoceros we expected this taxon to present a significant dietary plasticity. Being the extant European deer with the higher dietary plasticity, we compared our results with two modern red deer populations. Red deer from the Polish primeval forest of Białowieża are engaged in browsing while their Spanish counterparts from Lugar Nuevo are much more engaged in grazing. The dental microwear texture results mirror the feeding preferences of the fossil deer: either dicot foliage, seeds or tough and abrasive monocots. The wide range of variation of its dental microwear signal illustrates the diversity of the food categories this taxon is able to consume and therefore its important dietary plasticity. These results are not surprising when compared with the plasticity in dietary habits of modern Red deer. However, there are at odds with traditional paleoenvironmental interpretations. In our study, we show that the occurrence of Eucladoceros ctenoides in itself as a proxy for paleoenvironmental reconstructions is flawed. The dental microwear textures of this deer, rather than its occurrence, constitutes an adequate paleo-habitat proxy.
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hal-03908711 , version 1 (20-12-2022)

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  • HAL Id : hal-03908711 , version 1

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Emilie Berlioz, Dimitris S Kostopoulos, Cécile Blondel, Gildas Merceron. Exploring the dietary plasticity of Eucladoceros ctenoides: what does its occurrence in the fossil record mean?. 17th International Symposium on Dental Morphology (ISDM) & 2nd congress of International Association for Paleodontology (IAPO), Oct 2017, Bordeaux, France. . ⟨hal-03908711⟩
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