Preface ..................................................... xi
Acknowledgments .......................................... xviii
1 Hypsodonty in South America .................................. 1
1.1 The tangled history of precocious hypsodonty ............ 1
1.2 Explaining the prevalence of hypsodonty in South
American mammals ........................................ 9
2 Hypsodonty in the South American fossil record .............. 12
2.1 Background ............................................. 12
2.2 Hypsodonty as a feature of notoungulate evolution ...... 19
2.3 Hypsodonty in the middle Cenozoic of Patagonia ......... 25
2.4 Crown height and the single-chamber stomach in
notoungulates .......................................... 50
2.5 South America exceptional? ............................. 55
3 South America and global hypsodonty ......................... 59
3.1 Mammalian hypsodonty in South America .................. 59
3.2 Sigmodontine hypsodonty and geography .................. 73
3.3 Hypsodonty in mammals around the world ................. 80
4 Excess tooth wear in New Zealand ............................ 85
4.1 History of study ....................................... 85
4.2 The epidemiology and etiology of excess tooth wear ..... 92
4.3 Geographic patterns .................................... 93
4.4 Temporal patterns ..................................... 101
4.5 ENSO, erosion, and tooth wear ......................... 111
4.6 Conclusions about the etiology of excess tooth wear ... 116
5 Soil erosion, soil ingestion, and tooth wear in Australia .. 120
5.1 Introduction .......................................... 120
5.2 The original study of sheep tooth wear ................ 122
5.3 Dust flux and soil ingestion in southeastern
Australia ............................................. 132
5.4 Methods ............................................... 135
5.5 Results and discussion of time series analysis ........ 137
5.6 A more complex etiology? .............................. 144
5.7 Human tooth size and molar wear ....................... 144
5.8 Conclusions ........................................... 150
6 Crown height and tooth wear on islands ..................... 154
6.1 Why islands? .......................................... 154
6.2 Crown height evolution on Mediterranean islands ....... 154
6.3 Environmental change on Mediterranean islands ......... 161
6.4 From consequences to processes ........................ 163
6.5 Feral goats and sheep on islands ...................... 164
6.6 Conclusions ........................................... 190
7 The East African Plio-Pleistocene .......................... 191
7.1 Introduction .......................................... 191
7.2 The terrestrial fossil record ......................... 195
7.3 The record of soil erosion from source to sink ........ 198
7.4 Data analysis ......................................... 211
7.5 Conclusions ........................................... 233
8 The middle Cenozoic of Patagonia ........................... 236
8.1 Introduction .......................................... 236
8.2 Climate intimacy between Patagonia and the Southern
Ocean ................................................. 238
8.3 Drake Passage ......................................... 242
8.4 Paleotemperature and paleoprecipitation ............... 244
8.5 Volcanic activity ..................................... 255
8.6 Vegetation in Patagonia ............................... 260
8.7 Wind, marine productivity, and hypsodonty ............. 266
8.8 Discussion ............................................ 270
8.9 Summary ............................................... 278
9 Ever-growing teeth ......................................... 280
9.1 Introduction .......................................... 280
9.2 Ever-growing teeth .................................... 285
9.3 Why ever-growing teeth? ............................... 298
9.4 Consequences of the evolution of ever-growing teeth ... 299
9.5 Environmental impact of ever-growing teeth in South
America ............................................... 313
9.6 The Vicugna ........................................... 315
9.7 Engines of erosion? ................................... 320
10 Summary and conclusions .................................... 323
10.1 Summary ............................................... 323
10.2 The metaphysics of causation .......................... 337
10.3 The past and prospects for the future ................. 342
References ................................................. 348
Index ...................................................... 406
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