Expanding ecomorphological methods: geometric morphometric analysis of Cervidae post-crania

This study presents ecomorphological methods for reconstructing paleohabitats using three-dimensional geometric morphometric analyses of Cervidae (deer and relatives) post-cranial elements. Cervids are often the most abundant taxon in Eurasian Plio-Pleistocene sites, yet their post-cranial remains are rarely utilized in paleoecological reconstructions. Cervids are found in a wide variety of habitats, and thus their ecomorphology spans an appropriate range to serve as a proxy for paleohabitat. Four morphological features are examined in this study; the calcaneus as a whole (n = 122), the medial margin of the patellar surface of the femur (n = 133), the lateral margin of the tibial plateau (n = 136), and the plantar margin of the third phalanx (n = 62). These features were chosen because they represent various aspects of cervid locomotion important for power generation, stability, and substrate interaction. For each feature, canonical variates analyses with cross-validations were used to assess how well landmark configurations distinguish among specimens from different habitat types. Cross-validations returned correct reclassifications rates ranging from 38.9% to 66.3% in a four-habitat system, with resubstitution rates of 55.4% to 79.1% correct. Most habitat groups were found to be significantly different at p < 0.0001 using permutations tests. Variation in these ecomorphological adaptations are explored via visualizations depicting open and closed habitat types, and hypotheses are presented for cervid functional morphology. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.