On the relationship between hypsodonty and feeding ecology in ungulate mammals, and its utility in palaeoecology

On the relationship between hypsodonty and feeding ecology in ungulate mammals, and its utility in palaeoecology - Damuth - 2011 - Biological Reviews - Wiley Online Library

Here we review the history and current state of our knowledge of the relationship between hypsodonty and ungulate ecology, and reassert the value of hypsodonty for our understanding of ungulate feeding behaviour. We also show how soil consumption, rather than the consumption of grass plants per se, may be the missing piece of the puzzle in understanding the observed correlation between diets, habitats, and hypsodonty in ungulates. Additionally, we show how hypsodonty may impact life-history strategies, and resolve some controversies regarding the relevance of hypsodonty to the prediction of the diets of extinct species.

Genomic DNA Sequences from Mastodon and Woolly Mammoth Reveal Deep Speciation of Forest and Savanna Elephants

PLoS Biology: Genomic DNA Sequences from Mastodon and Woolly Mammoth Reveal Deep Speciation of Forest and Savanna Elephants: "To elucidate the history of living and extinct elephantids, we generated 39,763 bp of aligned nuclear DNA sequence across 375 loci for African savanna elephant, African forest elephant, Asian elephant, the extinct American mastodon, and the woolly mammoth. Our data establish that the Asian elephant is the closest living relative of the extinct mammoth in the nuclear genome, extending previous findings from mitochondrial DNA analyses. We also find that savanna and forest elephants, which some have argued are the same species, are as or more divergent in the nuclear genome as mammoths and Asian elephants, which are considered to be distinct genera, thus resolving a long-standing debate about the appropriate taxonomic classification of the African elephants. Finally, we document a much larger effective population size in forest elephants compared with the other elephantid taxa, likely reflecting species differences in ancient geographic structure and range and differences in life history traits such as variance in male reproductive success."

Another one bites the dust: faecal silica levels in large herbivores correlate with high-crowned teeth — Proceedings B

Another one bites the dust: faecal silica levels in large herbivores correlate with high-crowned teeth — Proceedings B: "Hypsodonty is usually linked to diet abrasiveness, either from siliceous phytoliths (monocotyledons) or from grit (dusty environments). In this study, faecal silica content was quantified as acid detergent insoluble ash and used as proxy for silica ingested by large African herbivores of different digestive types, feeding strategies and hypsodonty levels. Separate sample sets were used for the dry (n = 15 species) and wet (n = 13 species) season. Average faecal silica contents were 17–46 g kg⁻¹ dry matter (DM) for browsing and 52–163 g kg⁻¹ DM for grazing herbivores. "

Improving Food Security by Lester R. Brown

REVE - Regulación Eólica con Vehículos Eléctricos -: "From 1950 to 1990, world grainland productivity increased by 2.2 percent per year, but from 1990 until 2009 it went up by only 1.3 percent annually. Despite some impressive local advances, the global loss of momentum in expanding food production is forcing us to think more seriously about reducing demand by stabilizing population, moving down the food chain, and reducing the use of grain to fuel cars."

Behavioral response races, predator-prey shell gam... [Ecology. 2010] - PubMed result

Behavioral response races, predator-prey shell gam... [Ecology. 2010] - PubMed result: "The predator-prey shell game predicts random movement of prey across the landscape, whereas the behavioral response race and landscape of fear models predict that there should be a negative relationship between the spatial distribution of a predator and its behaviorally active prey. Additionally, prey have imperfect information on the whereabouts of their predator, which the predator should incorporate in its patch use strategy. I used a one-predator-one-prey system, puma (Puma concolor)-mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) to test the following predictions regarding predator-prey distribution and patch use by the predator. (1) Pumas will spend more time in high prey risk/low prey use habitat types, while deer will spend their time in low-risk habitats."

Ancient DNA reveals late survival of mammoth and horse in interior Alaska — PNAS

Ancient DNA reveals late survival of mammoth and horse in interior Alaska — PNAS: "recovery of ancient DNA from perennially frozen and securely dated sediments (sedaDNA). In such contexts, sedaDNA can reveal the molecular presence of species that appear absent in the macrofossil record. We show that woolly mammoth and horse persisted in interior Alaska until at least 10,500 yr BP, several thousands of years later than indicated from macrofossil surveys. These results contradict claims that Holocene survival of mammoths in Beringia was restricted to ecologically isolated high-latitude islands. More importantly, our finding that mammoth and horse overlapped with humans for several millennia in the region where people initially entered the Americas challenges theories that megafaunal extinction occurred within centuries of human arrival or were due to an extraterrestrial impact in the late Pleistocene."

Why the leopard got its spots: relating pattern development to ecology in felids — Proceedings B

Why the leopard got its spots: relating pattern development to ecology in felids — Proceedings B: "A complete explanation of the diversity of animal colour patterns requires an understanding of both the developmental mechanisms generating them and their adaptive value. However, only two previous studies, which involved computer-generated evolving prey, have attempted to make this link. This study examines variation in the camouflage patterns displayed on the flanks of many felids. After controlling for the effects of shared ancestry using a fully resolved molecular phylogeny, this study shows how phenotypes from plausible felid coat pattern generation mechanisms relate to ecology."

Black rhino numbers expand in Kenya

Black rhino numbers expand in Kenya - Story - World - 3 News: "The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is undertaking a major population study and relocation exercise at Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya's Rift Valley as rhino numbers there expand.
The park is crucial to Kenya's efforts to revive numbers of the endangered, but once plentiful, black rhino.
In addition to relocating some animals, the undertaking includes ear-notching, census and transmitter-fitting exercises, performed by officers from the elite force."

Costs and Benefits of Sociality Differ Between Female Guanacos Living in Contrasting Ecological Conditions - Marino - 2010 - Ethology - Wiley Online Library

Costs and Benefits of Sociality Differ Between Female Guanacos Living in Contrasting Ecological Conditions - Marino - 2010 - Ethology - Wiley Online Library: "According to current theory, anti-predator benefits promote group formation in open-dwelling ungulates. An inverse relationship between vigilance effort and group size has been documented frequently and thought to reflect the consequent decrease in perceived predation risk as group size increases. In contrast, competition costs are supposed to set the upper limit to the number of individuals that can forage together. As anti-predator behavior is no longer functional in the absence of predation and competition costs might be affected by resource distribution, the net benefit of aggregation will depend on the particular combination of predation risk and habitat structure experienced by the individual"

Move it or lose it? The ecological ethics of relocating species under climate change

ESA Online Journals - Move it or lose it? The ecological ethics of relocating species under climate change: "Managed relocation (also known as assisted colonization, assisted migration) is one of the more controversial proposals to emerge in the ecological community in recent years. A conservation strategy involving the translocation of species to novel ecosystems in anticipation of range shifts forced by climate change, managed relocation (MR) has divided many ecologists and conservationists, mostly because of concerns about the potential invasion risk of the relocated species in their new environments. While this is indeed an important consideration in any evaluation of MR, moving species across the landscape in response to predicted climate shifts also raises a number of larger and important ethical and policy challenges that need to be addressed."