Fossil evidence of interactions between plants and plant-eating mammals

Collinson, Margaret E.; Hooker, Jerry J.

doi:10.1098/rstb.1991.0068

Cited by 89 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Because Dasyproctids, such as agoutis and the similarly behaving acouchis, are common throughout the Neotropics, this may explain how many Neotropical tree species that once relied on large megafaunal seed dispersers have persisted in the wake of the Pleistocene extinctions (1). However, the relationship between rodents and large nuts is much older than the Pleistocene, appearing as early as the Late Paleocene (>55 MyBP), which is the same period as when large terrestrial frugivores abounded (51). These plants may have a long history of seed dispersal by rodents, and perhaps never depended on megafauna in the first place.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thieving rodents as substitute dispersers of megafaunal seeds

Jansen

Hirsch

Emsens

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

258

305

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The Neotropics have many plant species that seem to be adapted for seed dispersal by megafauna that went extinct in the late Pleistocene. Given the crucial importance of seed dispersal for plant persistence, it remains a mystery how these plants have survived more than 10,000 y without their mutualist dispersers. Here we present support for the hypothesis that secondary seed dispersal by scatterhoarding rodents has facilitated the persistence of these largeseeded species. We used miniature radio transmitters to track the dispersal of reputedly megafaunal seeds by Central American agoutis, which scatter-hoard seeds in shallow caches in the soil throughout the forest. We found that seeds were initially cached at mostly short distances and then quickly dug up again. However, rather than eating the recovered seeds, agoutis continued to move and recache the seeds, up to 36 times. Agoutis dispersed an estimated 35% of seeds for >100 m. An estimated 14% of the cached seeds survived to the next year, when a new fruit crop became available to the rodents. Serial video-monitoring of cached seeds revealed that the stepwise dispersal was caused by agoutis repeatedly stealing and recaching each other's buried seeds. Although previous studies suggest that rodents are poor dispersers, we demonstrate that communities of rodents can in fact provide highly effective long-distance seed dispersal. Our findings suggest that thieving scatter-hoarding rodents could substitute for extinct megafaunal seed dispersers of tropical large-seeded trees.Pleistocene extinctions | seed predation | cache pilferage | telemetry

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thieving rodents as substitute dispersers of megafaunal seeds

Jansen

Hirsch

Emsens

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

258

305

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“…The selenolophodonty developed in some groups in the Middle Eocene was also adapted to a frugivorous/ folivorous diet, as indicated by the well conserved stomach contents of Propalaeotherium from Messel (Sturm, 1978). At the end of the Middle Eocene, molarization of the premolars and the development of semihypsodonty indicate a diet composed of more ®brous plants, although the microwear study in the semihypsodont palaeothere Plagiolophus suggests that this genus was a browser (Collinson and Hooker, 1991). These characteristics are much more marked in the Oligocene Rhinocerotidae and the Amynodontidae (see discussion).…”

Section: Dental Pattern Analysesmentioning

confidence: 95%

The Eocene–Oligocene ungulates from Western Europe and their environment

Blondel

2001

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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A survey of Paleogene ungulates from Western Europe is drawn up from the results of previous work on the ungulate lineages of this period and from new data on two groups particularly representative of the Oligocene ungulate fauna: the ruminants and the Cainotheriidae based on new material collected in localities of the Quercy Phosphorites. The history of ungulates from Western Europe at the Eocene±Oligocene transition is marked by different phases of extinction and origination related to environmental changes. In this perspective, the relative diversity of groups and the modi®cations of their tooth morphology, which re¯ect a diet change, resulting from vegetation modi®cations are analysed from the Early Eocene to the Late Oligocene. In Western Europe, the Late Eocene and the Early Oligocene was a period of transition with an important change in faunal and oral composition. The diversity analysis of ungulates suggests that the Grande Coupure is the result of gradual climatic and geographic events that occurred from the Middle Eocene (Mammalian Paleogene (MP)13/14 reference levels) to the Early Oligocene (MP 21/22 reference levels). During this period, it has been demonstrated that important adaptive changes occurred in the ungulate dental pattern (selenodonty in artiodactyls, semihypsodonty in perissodactyls), and appendicular skeleton (fusion of the cuboid and navicular bones of the tarsus in artiodactyls). These morphological modi®cations coincided with environmental changes that were less extreme than in North America. q

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“…The once holarctic tarsiiform primates (16) are now represented by a single monophyletic group inhabiting a small fraction of their Eocene range-Southeast Asia, the only region assumed to have retained Eocene-like rain forest habitats through the Neogene (19). All the more intriguing is the unusual recent radiation of Tarsius on Sulawesi.…”

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confidence: 99%

Elucidating geological and biological processes underlying the diversification of Sulawesi tarsiers

Merker

Driller

Perwitasari-Farajallah

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Because of their exceptionally long independent evolution, a range diminution of their Eocene relatives, and a remarkable subsequent diversification in Southeast Asia, tarsiers are of particular importance to evolutionary primatologists. Little is known, however, on the processes shaping the radiation of these small enigmatic primates-especially on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, their center of endemism. Geological reconstructions and progress in applying DNA sequence information to divergence dating now provide us with the tools and background to comprehend tarsier dispersal. Here, we describe effects of plate-tectonic movements, Pleistocene sea level changes, and hybridization on the divergence of central Sulawesi tarsiers. We analyzed 12 microsatellites, the cytochrome b gene, the hypervariable region I of the mitochondrial control region, and the sex-determining region on the Y-chromosome from 144 specimens captured along a transect crossing a species boundary and a contact zone between 2 microplates. Based on these differentially inherited genetic markers, geographic information, and recordings of vocalizations, we demonstrate that the species boundary coincides with a tectonic suture. We estimate the most recent common ancestor of the 2 taxa to have lived 1.4 Mya, we describe asymmetrical introgressive hybridization, and we give evidence of unbiased dispersal in one species and malebiased dispersal in another species. This study exemplifies that the distribution of tarsier acoustic forms on Sulawesi is consistent with the allocation of genetic variability and that plate-tectonic and glacial events have left traceable marks in the biogeography of this island's unique fauna.hybridization ͉ phylogeography ͉ plate tectonics ͉ primate ͉ SRY

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Fossil evidence of interactions between plants and plant-eating mammals

Cited by 89 publications

References 41 publications

Thieving rodents as substitute dispersers of megafaunal seeds

Thieving rodents as substitute dispersers of megafaunal seeds

The Eocene–Oligocene ungulates from Western Europe and their environment

Elucidating geological and biological processes underlying the diversification of Sulawesi tarsiers

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