What is it about?
We test the association between the predominant diet of 98 murine rodent species with their tooth morphology. After correcting for evolutionary relationships, we find that species with a mostly plant diet have deeper incisors and longer third molars than species with a mostly animal diet.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that dental variation among mice and rats is associated with their predominant diet. We also show that the accuracy of the classification rodent species into dietary groups was improved after their evolutionary relationships were accounted for.
Perspectives
This is the first (and only) paper that I contributed to as a second author. The question that was examined by the first author was an interesting one, and it would be interesting to determine if the examined dental characters can be used to predict diet in other rodent groups.
Bader H Alhajeri
Kuwait University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Dietary adaptations in the teeth of murine rodents (Muridae): a test of biomechanical predictions, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, June 2016, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1111/bij.12822.
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