Getting geometric Alces pulmatus Moose Madoqua swaynei Silver

Getting geometric Alces pulmatus (Moose) ? ? ? Madoqua swaynei (Silver dik-dik) Raphicerus melanotis (Cape Grysbok) Rhyncotragus guentheri (Guenther’s dik-dik) Jon Tennant, Imperial College London; Norm Mac. Leod, Natural History Museum, London

Highly informative Shipley, 1999

Mean geometric shape profile of the 121 Procrustes-transformed snout profiles.

P=0. 0 Grazers: 84% Intermediates: 47. 9% Browsers: 48. 9% Frugivores: 100% 57. 02% “success rate”

Note: These are the axes viewed in 2 D space, when really they’re in 200 D space

Point along axis 1 2 3 4 5 Overlay 1 2 3 Axis Transition from pointed to blunt? Geometric simplicity of snout profiles has previously been a factor of limited sampling

71. 9% correct assignment – not bad, but not great P=2. 132 E-07

42. 14% correct assignment = not brilliant P=4. 054 E-10

78. 57% success rate (57. 02% before) Only well-defined browsers and grazers can be successfully delimited with a 78. 57% success rate This system breaks down when putative intermediates are incorporated

Shape-based feeding classes have been converged upon by ruminants independent of their body mass Grazers may be a much more specialised or conservative feeding group than previously suggested, compared to browsers

Er, Jon, this is Progressive PALAEONTOLOGY • Snout shape could be a statistically rigorous proxy for determining palaeoecology in extinct ruminants, and possibly other analogous groups. . Hypsilophodon foxii Dryosaurus lettowvorbecki Zalmoxes robustus Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus