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

9318747维沙姆佩尔建议研究旨在研究现存犀牛物种与它们赖以生存的植物之间相互作用的生态和进化模式。这项分析将基于骨骼形态，将受试者视为灭绝，从而形成与化石记录中提供的样本非常相似的样本。利用这一观点，可以将犀牛的咀嚼能力与与犀牛相关的植物的叶子的韧性进行比较。使用计算机建模技术来评估这种形式-功能关系。如果这些活着的食草动物的咀嚼能力与它们食物的物理特性相关联，比如韧性，那么对化石材料进行类似的分析就有可能为研究灭绝动物的生态和行为提供重要的见解。***

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. ***