Bibliography Record

 
 
Vélez-Juarbe, Jorge; Domning, Daryl Paul; Pyenson, Nicholas D. (detail)
   
2012
Iterative evolution of sympatric seacow (Dugongidae, Sirenia) assemblages during the past ~26 million years.
PLoS ONE 7(2): e31294. 8 pp. 1 tab. 3 figs. + 1 fig. in Supporting Information. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0031294. Feb. 3, 2012.
–Available online at: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0031294.
 ABSTRACT: Extant sirenians show allopatric distributions throughout most of their range. However, their fossil record shows evidence of multispecies communities throughout most of the past ~26 million years, in different oceanic basins. Morphological differences among co-occurring sirenian taxa suggest that resource partitioning played a role in structuring these communities. We examined body size and ecomorphological differences (e.g., rostral deflection and tusk morphology) among sirenian assemblages from the late Oligocene of Florida, early Miocene of India and early Pliocene of Mexico; each with three species of the family Dugongidae. Although overlapping in several ecomorphological traits, each assemblage showed at least one dominant trait in which coexisting species differed. Fossil sirenian occurrences occasionally are monotypic, but the assemblages analyzed herein show iterative evolution of multispecies communities, a phenomenon unparalleled in extant sirenian ecology. As primary consumers of seagrasses, these communities likely had a strong impact on past seagrass ecology and diversity, although the sparse fossil record of seagrasses limits direct comparisons. Nonetheless, our results provide robust support for previous suggestions that some sirenians in these extinct assemblages served as keystone species, controlling the dominance of climax seagrass species, permitting more taxonomically diverse seagrass beds (and sirenian communities) than many of those observed today.

Related Index Records (15)

Bharatisiren kachchhensis (Bajpai, Singh, and Singh, 1987) Bajpai and Domning, 1997
  2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al.

Community Ecology
(SEE ALSO: Food; Food Plants; Natural Enemies; Paleoecology; Parasites; Parasitology)
  * 2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al. (multispecies fossil sir. communities)

Corystosiren varguezi Domning, 1990
  2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al.

Crenatosiren olseni (Reinhart, 1976) Domning, 1991
  2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al.

Dioplotherium manigaulti Cope, 1883
  2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al.

Florida
  2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al. (multispecies fossil sir. community)

India
(SEE ALSO: Indian Ocean)
  2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al. (multispecies fossil sir. community)

Metaxytherium de Christol, 1840
  2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al.

Mexico
(SEE ALSO: Baja California; Central America)
  2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al. (multispecies fossil sir. community)

Paleoecology and Taphonomy
  * 2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al. (multispecies fossil sir. communities)

Phylogeny and Affinities of the Sirenia and/or Desmostylia
(SEE ALSO under species)
  * 2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al. (cladistic analysis)

Xenosiren yucateca Domning, 1989
  2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al.

Nanosiren garciae Domning in Domning & Aguilera, 2008
  2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al.

Domningia sodhae Thewissen & Bajpai, 2009
  2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al.

Kutchisiren cylindrica Bajpai, Domning, Das, Vélez-Juarbe, & Mishra, 2010
  2012 Vélez-Juarbe et al.


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