Seeds, browse, and tooth wear: a sheep perspective

摘要: While grazing as a selective factor towards hypsodont dentition on mammals has gained lot of attention, the importance fruits and seeds fallback resources for many browsing ungulates caught much less attention. Controlled-food experiments, by reducing dietary range, allow direct quantification effect each type items separately enamel abrasion. We present results dental microwear texture analysis 40 ewes clustered into four different controlled diets: clover alone, then three diets composed together with either barley, corn, or chestnuts. Among seed-eating groups, only barley one shows higher complexity than seed-free group. Canonical discriminant is successful at correctly classifying majority clover- seed-fed ewes. Although this study focuses which all fall within single category (browse), groups show variations in textures relation presence seeds. More matter seed size hardness, high amount kernels ingested per day found to be correlated molar facets. This highlights variability physical properties foods falling under umbrella.