Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America

Autores
Strömberg, Caroline A. E.; Dunn, Regan E.; Madden, Richard H.; Kohn, Matthew J.; Carlini, Alfredo Armando
Año de publicación
2013
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
The evolution of high-crowned cheek teeth (hypsodonty) in herbivorous mammals during the late Cenozoic is classically regarded as an adaptive response to the near-global spread of grass-dominated habitats. Precocious hypsodonty in middle Eocene (∼38 million years (Myr) ago) faunas from Patagonia, South America, is therefore thought to signal Earth's first grasslands, 20 million years earlier than elsewhere. Here, using a high-resolution, 43-18 million-year record of plant silica (phytoliths) from Patagonia, we show that although open-habitat grasses existed in southern South America since the middle Eocene (∼40 Myr ago), they were minor floral components in overall forested habitats between 40 and 18 Myr ago. Thus, distinctly different, continent-specific environmental conditions (arid grasslands versus ash-laden forests) triggered convergent cheek-tooth evolution in Cenozoic herbivores. Hypsodonty evolution is an important example where the present is an insufficient key to the past, and contextual information from fossils is vital for understanding processes of adaptation.
Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo
Materia
Ciencias Naturales
Cenozoic herbivorous
South America
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/85547

id SEDICI_812420ec429c6eda8c0d06114880e4ed
oai_identifier_str oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/85547
network_acronym_str SEDICI
repository_id_str 1329
network_name_str SEDICI (UNLP)
spelling Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South AmericaStrömberg, Caroline A. E.Dunn, Regan E.Madden, Richard H.Kohn, Matthew J.Carlini, Alfredo ArmandoCiencias NaturalesCenozoic herbivorousSouth AmericaThe evolution of high-crowned cheek teeth (hypsodonty) in herbivorous mammals during the late Cenozoic is classically regarded as an adaptive response to the near-global spread of grass-dominated habitats. Precocious hypsodonty in middle Eocene (∼38 million years (Myr) ago) faunas from Patagonia, South America, is therefore thought to signal Earth's first grasslands, 20 million years earlier than elsewhere. Here, using a high-resolution, 43-18 million-year record of plant silica (phytoliths) from Patagonia, we show that although open-habitat grasses existed in southern South America since the middle Eocene (∼40 Myr ago), they were minor floral components in overall forested habitats between 40 and 18 Myr ago. Thus, distinctly different, continent-specific environmental conditions (arid grasslands versus ash-laden forests) triggered convergent cheek-tooth evolution in Cenozoic herbivores. Hypsodonty evolution is an important example where the present is an insufficient key to the past, and contextual information from fossils is vital for understanding processes of adaptation.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo2013info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionArticulohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/85547enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/2041-1723info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/ncomms2508info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-09-29T11:16:30Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/85547Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-09-29 11:16:31.119SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America
title Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America
spellingShingle Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America
Strömberg, Caroline A. E.
Ciencias Naturales
Cenozoic herbivorous
South America
title_short Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America
title_full Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America
title_fullStr Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America
title_full_unstemmed Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America
title_sort Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Strömberg, Caroline A. E.
Dunn, Regan E.
Madden, Richard H.
Kohn, Matthew J.
Carlini, Alfredo Armando
author Strömberg, Caroline A. E.
author_facet Strömberg, Caroline A. E.
Dunn, Regan E.
Madden, Richard H.
Kohn, Matthew J.
Carlini, Alfredo Armando
author_role author
author2 Dunn, Regan E.
Madden, Richard H.
Kohn, Matthew J.
Carlini, Alfredo Armando
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias Naturales
Cenozoic herbivorous
South America
topic Ciencias Naturales
Cenozoic herbivorous
South America
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv The evolution of high-crowned cheek teeth (hypsodonty) in herbivorous mammals during the late Cenozoic is classically regarded as an adaptive response to the near-global spread of grass-dominated habitats. Precocious hypsodonty in middle Eocene (∼38 million years (Myr) ago) faunas from Patagonia, South America, is therefore thought to signal Earth's first grasslands, 20 million years earlier than elsewhere. Here, using a high-resolution, 43-18 million-year record of plant silica (phytoliths) from Patagonia, we show that although open-habitat grasses existed in southern South America since the middle Eocene (∼40 Myr ago), they were minor floral components in overall forested habitats between 40 and 18 Myr ago. Thus, distinctly different, continent-specific environmental conditions (arid grasslands versus ash-laden forests) triggered convergent cheek-tooth evolution in Cenozoic herbivores. Hypsodonty evolution is an important example where the present is an insufficient key to the past, and contextual information from fossils is vital for understanding processes of adaptation.
Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo
description The evolution of high-crowned cheek teeth (hypsodonty) in herbivorous mammals during the late Cenozoic is classically regarded as an adaptive response to the near-global spread of grass-dominated habitats. Precocious hypsodonty in middle Eocene (∼38 million years (Myr) ago) faunas from Patagonia, South America, is therefore thought to signal Earth's first grasslands, 20 million years earlier than elsewhere. Here, using a high-resolution, 43-18 million-year record of plant silica (phytoliths) from Patagonia, we show that although open-habitat grasses existed in southern South America since the middle Eocene (∼40 Myr ago), they were minor floral components in overall forested habitats between 40 and 18 Myr ago. Thus, distinctly different, continent-specific environmental conditions (arid grasslands versus ash-laden forests) triggered convergent cheek-tooth evolution in Cenozoic herbivores. Hypsodonty evolution is an important example where the present is an insufficient key to the past, and contextual information from fossils is vital for understanding processes of adaptation.
publishDate 2013
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2013
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Articulo
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
info:ar-repo/semantics/articulo
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/85547
url http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/85547
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/2041-1723
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/ncomms2508
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)
instname:Universidad Nacional de La Plata
instacron:UNLP
reponame_str SEDICI (UNLP)
collection SEDICI (UNLP)
instname_str Universidad Nacional de La Plata
instacron_str UNLP
institution UNLP
repository.name.fl_str_mv SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata
repository.mail.fl_str_mv alira@sedici.unlp.edu.ar
_version_ 1844616037965758464
score 13.070432