Teeth Tell Ancient Tale

University of Arkansas researchers examined the dental landscapes of prehistoric creatures from a South African province and found evidence for a dietary shift that suggests a corresponding change in the type of landscape that surrounded them. This marked change in the prehistoric landscape from woods and shrubs to grasslands may help fill in the picture of environmental changes that accompanied our own evolution.

Peter Ungar, professor of anthropology in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, and postdoctoral researchers Gildas Merceron and Rob Scott studied the teeth of bovids, or hoofed mammals, found in the fossil record at Langebaanweg, the site of a unique ecosystem on the coast of South Africa. Ungar reported their findings as part of an address at a symposium last week in Langebaanweg.