Three-dimensional dental topography and feeding ecology in the extinct cave bear.

Biol Lett

Departamento de Ecología y Geología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain.

Published: December 2020

The cave bear (.) was an iconic extinct bear that inhabited the Pleistocene of Eurasia. The cause of extinction of this species is unclear and to identify the actual factors, it is crucial to understand its feeding preferences. Here, we quantified the shape descriptor metrics in three-dimensional (3D) models of the upper teeth (P-M) of the cave bear to make inferences about its controversial feeding behaviour. We used comparative samples, including representatives of all living bear species with known diets, as a template. Our topographic analyses show that the complexity of upper tooth rows in living bears is more clearly associated with the mechanical properties of the items consumed than with the type of food. Cave bears exhibit intermediate values on topographic metrics compared with the bamboo-feeder giant panda () and specialists in hard mast consumption ( and ). The crown topography of cave bear upper teeth suggests that they could chew on tough vegetal resources of low quality with high efficiency, a characteristic that no living bear currently displays. Our results align with a climate-driven hypothesis to explain the extinction of cave bear populations during the Late Pleistocene.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7775984PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0792DOI Listing

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