Dental microwear textures of reindeer from northern herding districts in Finnish Lapland

Abstract

Patterns of microscopic wear on fossil teeth often serve as proxies to retrodict diets of extinct species. Dental microwear can also help ecologists monitor food choices in mammals today as they relate to variation in resource availability. Here we considered reindeer from northern Finland in herding districts with varying biomasses of lichen and dwarf shrub, hay and grass pasture to determine whether dental microwear texture pattern follows resource abundance. We examined textures of 179 individuals representing nine districts. All samples fell within the “mixed feeder” to browser range (with caveats), but there was also variation between districts. Results of a generalized mixed model indicated that samples from sites with more lichen had significantly lower microwear texture complexity. This suggests that while relationships between microwear pattern and resource abundance are complex, this approach holds promise as a tool for tracking food choice with varying availability for neontological studies.