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Interpreting the diet of extinct ruminants: the case of a non-browsing giraffid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Nikos Solounias ,
Mark Teaford  and
Alan Walker
Nikos Solounias
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, 725 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205
Mark Teaford
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, 725 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205
Alan Walker
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, 725 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205
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Abstract

Modern ruminant species have traditionally been placed in three broad dietary categories (browsers, grazers and intermediates) based on their observed feeding habits. Shape analysis of premaxillary outlines of 31 species of ruminants shows that their premaxillae differ according to their dietary category. Browsers have pointed premaxillae and grazers square ones. Intermediate feeders have intermediate outlines.

The Miocene giraffid Samotherium boissieri has always been viewed as a specialized browser similar to the modern okapi, Okapia johnstoni. However, the premaxillary shape of S. boissieri falls very close to the mean of the grazers and is most similar to that of the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer), a committed grazer.

Quantitative analyses of the microscopic wear patterns on the molars reveal significant differences between three modern species from the three dietary groups. S. boissieri has more microscopic scratches on its teeth than either the modern giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis (a browser) or Grant's gazelle Gazella granti (an intermediate feeder). In this respect, it is indistinguishable from the wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus which is a committed grazer.

Both of these analyses suggest that this extinct giraffid was a grazer, although we cannot rule out the possibility that it was an intermediate feeder. It was definitely not a specialized browser as are both living members of the Giraffidae.

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Paleobiology , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , Summer 1988 , pp. 287 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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