DENTAL MICROWEAR TEXTURES AND DENTAL MACROWEAR REVEAL DIETARY DIFFERENCES IN EXTANT FELIFORMS: IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERPRETING DIET IN EXTINCT TAXA

Dental microwear textural analysis (DMTA), the 3D analysis of microscopic wear patterns on teeth, can provide unique insights regarding the dietary niches of extinct and extant taxa. With regards to carnivorans, this technique can quantify various levels of durophagy (i.e., bone processing). Prior work has demonstrated significant differences in DMTA variables between modern cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus), African lions (Panthera leo), and the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). Here, we substantially expanded this modern baseline to also include the striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) and the brown hyena (Hyaena brunnea). Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that feliforms with more extreme macroscopic wear (i.e., a greater degree of dentine exposure on the carnassial tooth of carnivorans) have DMTA attributes consistent with brittle object consumption. Further, we assessed if any DMTA variables differed between males and females in any of the above mentioned groups. A total of 144 specimens were examined on a Plu neox profiler and scale-sensitive fractal analysis performed to assess anisotropy, complexity, and textural fill volume.

We compared macrowear to DMTA complexity values and observed that when all data are grouped by macrowear ranking, there is a positive correlation between increasing macrowear and increasing complexity. This implies that individuals exhibiting higher wear masticate more brittle objects. As expected, hyenas have the greatest macroscopic wear and the greatest complexity values. This is in contrast to cheetahs which exhibit the lowest macroscopic wear and lowest complexity values. However, at the species level, macroscopic and microscopic wear are not highly correlated. These results suggest that broad scale differences in diet are recorded via both macroscopic wear and DMTA in these feliforms. No DMTA attributes were significantly different between males and females in any species analyzed. Thus, bone processing may not significantly differ between sexes, although additional work may be needed to assess sex differences in lions and the brown hyena. Collectively, DMTA captures differences in dietary behavior in feliforms and can help clarify dietary behavior including durophagy in extinct feliforms.