Tooth microwear pattern in roe deer (Capreolus capreolus L.) from Chizé (Western France) and relation to food composition

doi:10.1016/j.smallrumres.2003.10.002

Small Ruminant Research

Volume 53, Issues 1–2, June 2004, Pages 125-132

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smallrumres.2003.10.002 Get rights and content

Abstract

This study was designed to correlate the dental microwear pattern in a population of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) with seasonal dietary data. Fifty roe deer specimens from the Chizé Forest in western France provides the material of this study. The shearing facet of the second molars is digitized using a 256 level gray scale light stereomicroscope equipped with a CCD camera. Numbers and dimensions of scratches and pits are quantified using a semi-automatic protocol. Considering the population as a whole, the results are consistent with previous dental microwear analysis and suggest a browsing diet (sensu lato). In fact, the percentage of pits exceeds 50%, which is correlated with a browsing and not grazing. Furthermore, the dental microwear excludes foraging on tubers or roots. Although no significant differences are found between sexes, males from the autumn sample have a higher number of scratches on the shearing molar facets than the females. This may be correlated with the more important intake of fruits by males than females during the rutting period. The number of scratches also suggests a dietary difference between two seasonal clusters. Summer and autumnal samples have a higher frequency of highly scratched dental facets that correlate with the fruit consumption by the roe deer during these periods. Fewer dental pits were found in the roe deer sampled during summer and spring than during the other seasons. This suggests seasonal diet shifts among plant life forms with consumption of soft green leaves during the spring and summer. In winter and autumn, the roe deer feeds often on dead leaves, acorns and ivy. These food items are often consumed with sand or bark particles during the prehension of the food, this would increase the likelihood of more pits than would occur with soft semi-ligneous leaves. This seasonal dental microwear pattern has revealed a relationship between seasonal food availability and deer diets. The dental microwear analysis on this population of roe deer will help determine the paleodietary patterns of extinct ungulates.

Introduction

Quantifying the dental microwear pattern in mammals provides an indication of what foods may have been consumed. This appears to be an exceptional tool for studying diets in paleoecology. Numerous studies on extant species are necessary for extrapolating on fossil ungulate populations.

The number of pits (semi-circular scars) and scratches (elongated scars) vary with the properties of the last food items consumed during the last days before the animal’s death. In fact, the turnover of the dental microwear pattern can be on the order of days. Thus, the dental microwear pattern can yield insights into the dietary habits of the last days prior the death (Rensberger, 1978, Teaford and Oyen, 1989). The dental microwear pattern on shearing molar facets of browsing ungulates such as the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), differ from those of grazers such as the wildebeest (Connochaetes gnu) by a higher percentage of pits (Solounias et al., 1988a, Solounias and Hayek, 1993b, Solounias and Semprebon, 2002). In fact, grasses and related plants leave numerous scratches because of the high concentration of silica phytoliths in their cell walls (Mac Naughton et al., 1985, Robert and Roland, 1998). Within the browsing species (sensu lato), leaf browsers such as the giraffe (G. camelopardalis) differ from the fruit browsers like the white tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) by a lower number of scratches on shearing molar facets (Solounias and Semprebon, 2002). Animals, such as the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) that ingest nuts or hard inert substances such as sand have a dental wear pattern similar to browsers. The difference being in the number of pits (Solounias and Semprebon, 2002).

This study was designed to investigate the seasonal food variations among a population of roe deer (Chizé, France) from molar microwear patterns on the shearing molar facets using a new method of dental microwear quantification. The molar microwear pattern recorded is compared with the food composition of roe deer in accordance with the season and the gender.

Section snippets

Material and methods

The molar microwear pattern of 50 adult roe deer (37 males and 13 females) housed at the “Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage” (ONCFS) of Chizé (France) were used in this study for analysis. The reserve, from which the deer had been harvested was a totally fenced oak beech forest of 26 km², having no exchange of animals with other populations (Cibien, 1984, Cibien and Sempere, 1989, Maizeret et al., 1989). Dental specimen were ranked by gender and season of harvest (Table 1). The

Results

The population of roe deer (N=50) had a mean of 19.2 scratches, 25.5 pits and 56.1% of pits on the enamel facets (Table 1). Only 4% of the population had more than two wide scratches, while 30 and 34% of the specimen had more than four cross scratches and four large pits, respectively (Table 2). Forty percent of the total deer population had less than 17.5 scratches and 60% had between 17.5 and 29.5 scratches. No deer specimen had more than 30.0 scratches (Table 3).

No significant differences (^*P

Dental microwear of the roe deer population of Chizé

The overall percentage of pits (56.1%, Table 1), the frequency of specimen having more than two wide scratches (4%, Table 2), the numbers of pits (25.5) and scratches (19.2, Table 1) on the shearing molar facets of the roe deer suggest the intake of non-abrasive and softer food items (Solounias and Semprebon, 2002). These dental microwear inferences are in according with the dietary habits of the roe deer. In fact, several stomach content analysis and field observations indicate that leaves of

Conclusions

This dental microwear analysis reveals that the roe deer mainly browses soft and non-abrasive food items. Differences of dietary habits according to the season and even the gender are revealed by some light variations of dental microwear pattern. The important fruit consumption during the summer and the autumn and the intake of ground particles are showed up by the dental microwear analysis. Thus, this dental microwear analysis using the new method is reliable, and then can be repeated and

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Guy Van Laere and Jean-Marie Boutin of the ONCFS of Chizé for their help with data collection, to Patrick Duncan and Nathalie Pettorelli for their help and knowledge of roe deer, to Pierre Voisin of the “Service Interdisciplinaire de Microscopie et d’Imagerie Scientifique”, University of Poitiers, and to Christopher Sutcliffe for critical reading of the manuscript. We thank also the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. We acknowledge the Coltene

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Cited by (82)

Where and when? Combining dental wear and death seasons to improve paleoenvironmental reconstruction through ungulate diets
2023, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
Dental meso- and microwear are proxies that allow the diet to be reconstructed. Applied to herbivores, these proxies provide information on vegetation structure and composition. Several studies on fossil populations have proposed environmental reconstructions based on these methods. These studies often focus on a few selected taxa and rarely consider the total variability of ungulate diets at sites in contexts where the seasonality of occupations is often not estimated. The variability of the ungulate diet associated with a better knowledge of the moment of their death can greatly improve the quality and resolution of the environmental interpretation at the scale past hominins experienced. In this paper, we propose a new approach to dental wear to reconstruct environments. We recommend including all available ungulates according to their abundance in the faunal spectrum to consider as many habitats as possible. The combination of dental meso- and microwear allows us to address two scales of time and space–the regional scale over several years and the local scale over one season, respectively. Applied to Teixoneres Cave (Units IIIa and IIIb, Spain) and Pié Lombard (Ensemble II, France), the results confirm previous microfauna analysis and make it possible to characterize the intensity of seasonal turnover.
Grit your teeth and chew your food: Implications of food material properties and abrasives for rates of dental microwear formation in laboratory Sapajus apella (Primates)
2021, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
Dental microwear analysis has been employed in studies of a wide range of modern and fossil animals, yielding insights into the biology/ecology of those taxa. Some researchers have suggested that dental microwear patterns ultimately relate back to the material properties of the foods being consumed, whereas others have suggested that, because exogenous grit is harder than organic materials in food, grit should have an overwhelming impact on dental microwear patterns.
To shed light on this issue, laboratory-based feeding experiments were conducted on tufted capuchin monkeys [Sapajus apella] with dental impressions taken before and after consumption of different artificial foods. The foods were (1) brittle custom-made biscuits laced with either of two differently-sized aluminum silicate abrasives, and (2) ductile custom-made “gummies” laced with either of the two same abrasives. In both cases, animals were allowed to feed on the foods for 36 h before follow-up dental impressions were taken. Resultant casts were analyzed using a scanning electron microscope. We asked five questions: (1) would the animals consume different amounts of each food item, (2) what types of dental microwear would be formed, (3) would rates of dental microwear differ between the consumption of biscuits (i.e., brittle) versus gummies (i.e., ductile), (4) would rates of dental microwear differ between foods including larger- versus smaller-grained abrasives, and (5) would rates of dental microwear differ between molar shearing and crushing facets in the animals in these experiments?
Results indicated that (1) fewer biscuits were consumed when laced with larger-grained abrasives (as opposed to smaller-grained abrasives), but no such difference was observed in the consumption of gummies, (2) in all cases, a variety of dental microwear features was formed, (3) rates of dental microwear were higher when biscuits versus gummies were consumed, (4) biscuits laced with larger-grained abrasives caused a higher percentage of new features per item consumed, and (5) the only difference between facets occurred with the processing of biscuits, where crushing facets showed a faster rate of wear than shearing facets. These findings suggest that the impact of exogenous grit on dental microwear is the result of a dynamic, complex interaction between (at the very least) grit size, food material properties, and time spent feeding - which is further evidence of the multifactorial nature of dental microwear formation.
A new genus and species and additional reports of the South American native ungulates Proterotheriidae (Mammalia, Litopterna) in the Late Miocene of Uruguay
2020, Journal of South American Earth Sciences
An exhaustive comparative analysis of the recently found cranial, dental and postcranial remains, in the context of the South American native ungulates Proterotheriidae was conducted. A new genus and species of the Family Proterotheriidae, Pseudobrachytherium breve, is reported. The new taxon is based on a complete cranium of medium size, slender, with the complete dentition preserved. It has a new combination of features: a curved dorsal plane at the level of the parietals, premaxilla anteriorly projected (not sagitally diverging), rostral border of the orbit at the level of M1, occipital condyles in the same plane of the basicranium, posteriorly projected, incisors anteriorly projected in a 120° angle with the occlusal plane, M2 with slender hypocone, barely separated from the protocone by a subtle posterior groove and with conspicuous conical metaconule, quite lingually located, very closely to the hypocone. In addition, the first record of Neobrachytherium outside Argentina and other proterotheriid tarsal remains are documented. The fossils herein described were exhumed from sediments of the Camacho Formation, Late Miocene of Uruguay. This study increases the mammalian diversity for this unit and confirm the peak of diversity of the family in the Huayquerian Age/Stage.
Dental wear analyses of Middle Pleistocene site of Lunel-Viel (Hérault, France): Did Equus and Bos live in a wetland?
2020, Quaternary International
This study presents comparison of dental meso and micro-wear analyses on Middle Pleistocene equids and bovids from Lunel-Viel I (Hérault, France) with their extant counterpart from Camargue. Previous paleoenvironnemental observations hypothesize a great proximity between the Camargue wetland and Lunel-Viel environment. Teeth wear analyses provides an innovative approach to describe eco-ethological parameters, such as diet and biotope.
Camarque's horses and cattle diets are similar and characterized by a mixed feeding. Lunel-Viel I's Equus had a grass-dominated mixed feeding diet while Bos had a browsing diet. The differences in the feeding habits and resource partitioning between the two taxa in the two locations suggest two different biotopes. While the extant sample still need to be completed, preliminary observations indicate that it is very unlikely bovids and equids from Lunel-Viel inhabited a biotope like nowadays Camague.
This study highlights the contributions of a combined comparative approach and adds new data to analyse the paleodietary patterns of extinct ungulates.
Tooth wear as a practical indicator of sexual differences in senescence and mastication investment in ecology studies
2019, Ecological Indicators
Teeth of many mammalian species do not grow further after they have emerged, nor are they replaced or repaired if they break or wear. These dental properties have been used to test evolutionary hypotheses on life expectancy relative to actual age (senescence, aging), as the animal is expected to die when all its dental crown tissue has been depleted due to the wearing effect of mastication. Females of polygynous mammals with small litter size are expected to live longer than males of the same species, as female reproductive fitness is maximised by having a long reproductive life. In contrast, maleś reproductive success is limited to the short period when they are in prime condition, as it is in this period that they are most successful in intra-sexual competition for mating opportunities. Consequently, it has been predicted that femaleś teeth should be more durable and so wear more slowly than maleś teeth. However, these predictions are affected by potential sex differences in the hardness of dental tissues, which have not been assessed in depth in the literature. I tested sexual differences in the hardness of enamel and dentine on a balanced, by sex and age, sample of 156 lower first molars of Scottish red deer of known age using Vickers micro-hardness indentation measures as a proxy of the resilience of the tooth to wear. My results clearly indicate that there are no sexual differences in enamel and dentine hardness, and that tooth hardness has a negligible effect on predicting tooth wear, which supports the use of tooth wear relative to body size as a convenient proxy for assessing sexual differences in senescence in polygynous ungulates. I warn on making conclusions from comparisons between populations or species in tooth wear when tooth hardness was controlled for.
The bear necessities: A new dental microwear database for the interpretation of palaeodiet in fossil Ursidae
2019, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
Citation Excerpt :
This omnivorous diet is reflected in the microwear features (Table 6), which show similarities to the other “soft mast” feeders in this study and clearly differ from the “hard mast” consumers. Most individuals reveal small round pits, which have been linked with the plucking of soft food items (Mainland, 2003; Merceron et al., 2004a). The diet of North American brown bear is very similar to that of black bears but with more carnivorous tendencies (Mowat and Heard, 2006; Fortin et al., 2007).
This study presents a new database of dental microwear features for extant bear species, which is used to interpret palaeodiet in brown bear (Ursus arctos) from the late Middle Pleistocene site of Grays Thurrock, U.K. Applying light stereomicroscopy techniques in dental microwear analysis, we highlight, for the first time, that the talonid area of the first lower molar (m1) in extant ursids is most effective in the differentiation of dietary ecospaces. Extant bear species can be separated into different parts of a dietary ecospace revealing microwear features that mirror their dietary preferences. Of particular note is the differentation of ecospaces within modern brown bear populations from different geographical regions and the potential for identifying seasonal variation in diet. The results demonstrate that the diet of thelate Middle Pleistocene brown bear from the interglacial site of Grays Thurrock was closely comparable to that of the modern U. arctos from northern Europe, the American black bear (Ursus americanus), and the sun bear (Helarctos malayanus). This suggests the dietary importance of fibrous food, as well as soft fruits and invertebrates and a small vertebrate component. This finding is in agreement with climatic conditions and habitats inferred for the MIS 9 interglacial. The creation and testing of a dental microwear database for all modern bear species provides a foundation for subsequent application to other extinct Pleistocene bear populations.

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Small Ruminant Research

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Material and methods

Results

Dental microwear of the roe deer population of Chizé

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

References (27)

Dental evidence for dietary differences in Australopithecus and Paranthropus: a quantitative analysis of permanent molar microwear

J. Hum. Evol.

Food availability as a factor in habitat use by roe deer

Acta Theriol.

Mammalia

A study of microwear on chimpanzee molars: implications for dental microwear analysis

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

Error rates in dental microwear quantification using SEM

Scanning

Simulation of dental microwear: characteristic traces by opals phytoliths give clues to ancient human dietary behavior

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

Evolutionary steps of ecophysiological adaptation and diversification view of their digestive system

Oecologia

Ecology of the giraffe in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya

E. Afr. Wildl. J.

On the ecology of the Gerenuk Litocranius walleri

J. Anim. Ecol.

Silica as a defense against herbivory and a growth promoter in African grasses

Ecology

Cited by (82)

Where and when? Combining dental wear and death seasons to improve paleoenvironmental reconstruction through ungulate diets

Grit your teeth and chew your food: Implications of food material properties and abrasives for rates of dental microwear formation in laboratory Sapajus apella (Primates)

A new genus and species and additional reports of the South American native ungulates Proterotheriidae (Mammalia, Litopterna) in the Late Miocene of Uruguay

Dental wear analyses of Middle Pleistocene site of Lunel-Viel (Hérault, France): Did Equus and Bos live in a wetland?

Tooth wear as a practical indicator of sexual differences in senescence and mastication investment in ecology studies

The bear necessities: A new dental microwear database for the interpretation of palaeodiet in fossil Ursidae