Evol Ecol Res 3: 221-230 (2001)     Full PDF if your library subscribes.

Evolutionary transitions among feeding styles and habitats in ungulates

F. Javier Pérez-Barbería,1,2 Iain J. Gordon1 and Carlos Nores2

1The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK and 2Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Ordenación del Territorio, 13 Independencia, Oviedo 33071, Spain

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed.
e-mail: j.perez-barberia@mluri.sari.ac.uk

ABSTRACT

Using a phylogeny of extant species with a maximum likelihood model of trait evolution, the most likely pathway that led to the current diversification of feeding styles in the Ungulata is described and related to their habitat use. Habitat use and feeding style are intimately associated in extant species; grazing and mixed-feeder species are more likely to use open habitats than browsing species. From the ancestral state of a closed-habitat dweller/browser, the acquisition of an open-habitat/grazer state is likely to have occurred through a three-step transition. In the first step, the ancestral ungulate species evolved a mixed-feeder feeding style but retained the closed-habitat condition. Then, once the species had a mixed diet, it evolved to occupy open habitats. Finally, a grazer feeding style evolved with the open-habitat state being retained. The mixed-feeder state is a flexible evolutionary state that acts as a link between closed and open habitats. These findings are discussed from a comparative palaeoecological perspective.

Keywords: browser, diet, grazer, habitat use.

DOWNLOAD A FREE, FULL PDF COPY
IF you are connected using the IP of a subscribing institution (library, laboratory, etc.)
or through its VPN.

 

        © 2001 F. Javier Pérez-Barbería. All EER articles are copyrighted by their authors. All authors endorse, permit and license Evolutionary Ecology Ltd. to grant its subscribing institutions/libraries the copying privileges specified below without additional consideration or payment to them or to Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. These endorsements, in writing, are on file in the office of Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. Consult authors for permission to use any portion of their work in derivative works, compilations or to distribute their work in any commercial manner.

       Subscribing institutions/libraries may grant individuals the privilege of making a single copy of an EER article for non-commercial educational or non-commercial research purposes. Subscribing institutions/libraries may also use articles for non-commercial educational purposes by making any number of copies for course packs or course reserve collections. Subscribing institutions/libraries may also loan single copies of articles to non-commercial libraries for educational purposes.

       All copies of abstracts and articles must preserve their copyright notice without modification.