Living Rhinocerotids and Their Diets as Tests of Paleontologic Approaches to Herbivore-Plant Interactions

小行星9318747 这项研究的目的是研究犀牛物种与它们所食植物之间相互作用的生态和进化模式。这种分析将基于骨骼形态学，将受试者视为灭绝物种，从而形成与化石记录中的样本非常相似的样本。从这个角度来看，犀牛的咀嚼能力将与与这些犀牛相关的植物叶子的韧性进行比较。使用计算机建模技术评估这种形式-功能关系。如果这些现存食草动物的咀嚼能力与其食物的物理特性（如韧性）相关，那么对化石材料进行类似的分析将成为可能，为研究灭绝动物的生态学和行为提供重要见解。 ***

9318747 Weishampel The proposal research aims at examining the ecological and evolutionary patterns of interactions between living rhinoceros species and the plants they feed upon. This analysis will be based on skeletal morphology treating the subjects as if they were extinct, thus forming samples much like those available from the fossil record. Using this perspective the chewing capability among rhinos will be compared to the toughness of leaves of plants associated with these rhinos. This form-function relationship is evaluated using computer modeling techniques. If the chewing capability of these living herbivores is correlated to physical properties of their food, such as toughness, similar kinds of analyses will be possible on fossil material providing important insights into the ecology and behavior of extinct animals. ***