December 2023: publication Journal of Human Evolution
Investigating the dietary niches of fossil Plio-Pleistocene European macaques: The case of Macaca majori Azzaroli, 1946 from Sardinia
This month, the Journal of Human Evolution published a new joint study by researchers, notably from Palevoprim and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. This work aimed to describe macaques’ diet, whose range extended to Europe nearly 2 million years ago. Among the best-preserved fossil remains, teeth are veritable archives! The morphology of macaque teeth reflects an adaptation to a diet rich in hard foods (seeds, roots, etc.), a hypothesis confirmed by the texture of the tooth wear, which is rougher than those of many present-day monkey species.
Studying the ecology of extinct species is paramount to understanding their evolutionary history. Thus, their extinction in Europe is probably linked to climate change, which had major impacts on the food resources of this monkey.
This study is the result of the brilliant thesis work of Christos Plastiras, who joined the Palevoprim laboratory for a year to work with Franck Guy and Gildas Merceron with the support of the France Excellence Eiffel Scholarship of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the CNRS through the IEA-PICS 08245 “ExParadox”.
Here is the Ty 5203 cranium assigned to Macaca majori from Capo Figari, a Sardinian paleontological site dated nearly 1.8 million years ago, which is housed at the Natural History Museum of Basel, Switzerland. The topographic parameters of its molars and the microscopic study of the microwear on the enamel of the same teeth inform the diet.
References
Plastiras C. A., Thiery G., Guy F., Alba D. M., Nishimura T., Kostopoulos D. S. & Merceron G. 2023 – Investigating the dietary niches of fossil Plio-Pleistocene European macaques: The case of Macaca majori Azzaroli, 1946 from Sardinia – Journal of Human Evolution, 185, 103454 – 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103454