Quantitative analysis of conodont tooth wear and damage as a test of ecological and functional hypotheses
Quantitative analysis of conodont tooth wear and damage as a test of ecological and functional hypotheses
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DOI：
10.1666/09070.1
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发表时间：
2012-09-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Jones, David
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Purnell, Mark A.;Jones, David
牙齿磨损和损伤的分析正在成为解开广泛脊椎动物营养生态的越来越重要的工具，当应用于化石时，它可以提供独立于形态分析的摄食和摄食运动学证据。牙形刺是脊椎动物中最好的化石记录，其骨骼元素因其牙齿功能而在活体内表现出表面磨损和损伤。我们报告了首次系统调查和分析牙形刺中这种磨损和破坏的频率和程度的结果(基于一系列石炭纪属的P-1元素)。这表明磨损和损坏是非常普遍的，在所有采样的牙形石元素中都存在。多元分析表明，不同牙形刺分类群之间的磨损和损伤模式存在显著差异，探索性方差分析和线性判别分析表明，磨损和损伤随分类群在岸上-近海梯度中的位置不同而不同，以及它们可能具有海底或远洋生物模式。牙齿顶端剥落的发生率特别是在较远海环境和可能具有远洋生活模式的分类群中更高。数据的各个方面也反映了元素的咬合运动学，提供了一种测试元素功能假说的方法。我们的结果对解开牙形刺化石记录具有广泛的意义，例如，通过提供可能驱动观察到的进化模式变化的饮食调节过程的直接证据，以及在基于同位素的古温度研究中使用牙形刺时减少深度分离的混杂影响。
Analysis of dental wear and damage is becoming an increasingly important tool in unraveling the trophic ecology of a wide range of vertebrates, and when applied to fossils it can provide evidence of both diet and feeding kinematics that is independent of morphological analysis. Conodonts have the best fossil record among vertebrates and their skeletal elements are known to exhibit surface wear and damage generated in vivo as a consequence of their function as teeth. We report the results of the first systematic survey and analysis of the frequency and extent of this wear and damage in conodonts (based on P-1 elements from a range of Carboniferous genera). This has revealed that wear and damage are remarkably common, present in all conodont elements sampled. Multivariate analysis reveals that patterns of wear and damage differ significantly among different conodont taxa, and exploratory ANOVA and linear discriminant analyses show that wear and damage differ according to the position of taxa in an onshore-offshore gradient, and whether they are likely to have had a benthic or pelagic mode of life. The incidence of denticle tip spalling in particular is higher in more-offshore environments and in taxa likely to have had a pelagic mode of life. Aspects of the data also reflect the occlusal kinematics of the elements, providing a means of testing hypotheses of element function. Our results have wide-ranging implications for unlocking the fossil record of conodonts, by, for example, furnishing direct evidence of the diet-mediated processes that may have driven observed patterns of evolutionary change, and reducing the confounding effects of depth segregation when using conodonts in isotope-based paleotemperature studies.