Diet and the Dietary Niches of the Malagasy Subfossil Lemurs: an Analysis of Dental Microwear, Dental Proportions, and Grit Accumulation
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Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Anthropology Theses Department of Anthropology 5-10-2017 Diet and the Dietary Niches of the Malagasy Subfossil Lemurs: An Analysis of Dental Microwear, Dental Proportions, and Grit Accumulation Cristel Bender Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/anthro_theses Recommended Citation Bender, Cristel, "Diet and the Dietary Niches of the Malagasy Subfossil Lemurs: An Analysis of Dental Microwear, Dental Proportions, and Grit Accumulation." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2017. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/anthro_theses/115 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Anthropology at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DIET AND THE DIETARY NICHES OF THE MALAGASY SUBFOSSIL LEMURS: AN ANALYSIS OF DENTAL MICROWEAR, DENTAL PROPORTIONS, AND GRIT ACCUMULATION by CRISTEL BENDER Under the Direction of Frank L’Engle Williams PhD ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to identify the currently supported diet and dietary niches of the Malagasy subfossil and extant lemurs. The study was conducted partially in Tsinjoarivo and Antananarivo, Madagascar in the summer of 2013. Samples were analyzed and microwear determined that the dietary niches were aligned with current literature. Grit accumulation occurs more frequently in disturbed habitats and on lower canopy levels, which suggests that human manipulation of environment can impact the dental microwear of living primates. INDEX WORDS: Subfossil lemurs, Extant lemurs, Dietary reconstruction, Grit accumulation, Dental microwear DIET AND THE DIETARY NICHES OF THE MALAGASY SUBFOSSIL LEMURS: AN ANALYSIS OF DENTAL MICROWEAR, DENTAL PROPORTIONS, AND GRIT ACCUMULATION by CRISTEL BENDER A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2017 Copyright by Cristel Rhiannon Bender 2017 DIET AND THE DIETARY NICHES OF THE MALAGASY SUBFOSSIL LEMURS: AN ANALYSIS OF DENTAL MICROWEAR, DENTAL PROPORTIONS, AND GRIT ACCUMULATION by CRISTEL BENDER Committee Chair: Frank L’Engle Williams Committee: Frank L’Engle Williams Laurie Rhode Godfrey Bethany Livermore Turner Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May 2017 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The researcher would like to thank Dr. Laurie Godfrey for allowing the opportunity to participate in the field school where the data were collected and also for the idea to pursue such an interesting topic of investigation, and Dr. Mitchell Irwin for providing valuable insight into this and for his support and knowledge concerning the diet of living lemurs. Kristen Allfisher offered her support, knowledge, and enthusiasm for all things relating to primates, the environment, and anthropology. I thank MICET, SADABE, the University of Antananarivo, the village of Tsinjoarivo, and all participants in the 2013 University of Massachusetts Amherst and Northern Illinois University Field School for all of the amazing experiences and opportunities afforded to the researcher. In addition, the researcher would also like to thank Dr. Frank Williams for his constant support and encouragement throughout the arduous process of research and writing. Thanks to him for always being available to discuss the research topic and ensure that the researcher did not quit no matter how often she may have considered it. Thanks are offered to William Glenn Anderson for providing microwear photographs and for sharing a lab space. Sam Hunley offered the researcher a secondary library from which to locate research. Sarah Bender was invaluable for constantly offering her support and is credited with her assistance with Figure 2. Finally, this project would not have been completed without the love, support, and motivation of Zen Conley. The researcher could not have completed this momentous task without these people, but doubly so in regards to her. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. v LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... ix 1 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The Subfossil and Extant Lemurs ..................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Taxonomy of Subfossil and Extant Lemurs................................................... 2 1.1.2 Phylogeny of Subfossils and Extant Lemurs ................................................. 2 1.2 The Paleoecology of Madagascar ....................................................................... 6 1.2.1 Major sites of subfossil finds in Madagascar ................................................ 7 1.3 Dietary groupings of subfossil and extant lemurs ............................................ 8 1.3.1 Major dietary groups of the subfossil lemurs ................................................ 9 1.3.2 Major Dietary Groups of Living Lemurs ..................................................... 12 1.4 Purpose of the Study ......................................................................................... 13 1.4.1 Grit accumulation and diet reconstruction .................................................. 14 1.4.2 Dental measurements .................................................................................... 17 1.4.3 Dental microwear .......................................................................................... 17 2 EXPERIMENT ......................................................................................................... 19 2.1 Reconstructing the Past .................................................................................... 19 2.1.1 Reconstructing the diet of subfossil lemurs ................................................. 19 vii 2.1.2 Reconstructing paleoecology ........................................................................ 20 2.2 Data Collection .................................................................................................. 21 2.2.1 Grit accumulation and paleoecology ............................................................ 21 2.2.2 Dental measurements of subfossil and extant lemurs ................................. 23 2.2.3 Dental microwear of subfossil and extant lemurs ....................................... 24 3 RESULTS .................................................................................................................. 26 3.1 Grit Accumulation............................................................................................. 26 3.2 Dental Measurements and Microwear ............................................................ 32 3.2.1 Comparison of extant dental microwear fruit and leaf gradients ............... 32 3.3 Discussion of results .......................................................................................... 38 3.3.1 Discussion of results: grit accumulation...................................................... 38 3.3.2 Discussion of results: dental measurements and dental microwear ........... 38 4 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................... 41 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 42 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................ 47 Appendix A .................................................................................................................. 47 Appendix A.1 ............................................................................................................. 47 Appendix A.2 ............................................................................................................. 50 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Current lemur families, including subfossils ......................................................... 2 Table 2 T-test of grit accumulation, on and off trail, and trail distance ........................... 27 Table 3 ANOVA of grit accumulation, on and off trail. ................................................... 28 Table 4 ANOVA of grit accumulation and sample height. .............................................. 30 Table 5 Tukey’s HSD test of grit accumulation and sample height. ................................ 30 Table 6 ANOVA of grit accumulation and trail distance. ................................................ 32 Table 7 Discriminant function analysis Jackknifed classification matrix for extant fruit gradients ........................................................................................................................................ 32 Table 8 Discriminant function analysis Jackknifed classification matrix for extant leaf gradients ........................................................................................................................................ 33 Table 9 Multiple linear regression coefficients with extremes in bold ............................