DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6djh9w1f7
title: Data from: Feeding strategies of the Pleistocene insular dwarf elephants <em>Palaeoloxodon falconeri</em> and <em>Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis</em> from Sicily (Italy)

description: The fossil record of the Mediterranean islands attests several cases of
 insular dwarfism. The extinct large-sized straight-tusked elephant
 Palaeoloxodon antiquus underwent this process at least twice during the
 Pleistocene, resulting in the evolution of Palaeoloxodon falconeri (early
 Middle Pleistocene) and Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis (late Middle
 Pleistocene/Late Pleistocene) in Sicily, a rare case of two insular taxa
 evolving from the same ancestral species independently on the same island
 and subsequently. We investigate diet-related dental wear patterns of P.
 falconeri and P. mnaidriensis from Sicily to test hypotheses on their
 niche occupation in more spatially restricted (P. falconeri) versus a more
 widely distributed, mainland-like (P. mnaidriensis) insular contexts.
 Although P. falconeri did not compete with other herbivorous mammals and
 could have exploited the most nutritious and palatable resources as a
 browser, dental meso- and microwear patterns suggest a high degree of
 dietary abrasion. P. mnaidriensis, which coexisted with other large
 herbivores and carnivores, also displays dental meso- and microwear
 patterns indicative of a high intake of abrasive items. A scenario of
 insular woodiness (i.e., increased woodiness in insular plants), combined
 with intense exploitation of the limited vegetation due to the absence of
 predatory pressure, may explain the abrasive dental wear patterns of P.
 falconeri. The high degree of abrasion observed in P. mnaidriensis
 patterns may reflect an adaptation to a grazing diet associated with the
 expansion of open grasslands during the Late Pleistocene. Our results show
 that the dwarf elephants of Sicily developed similar dietary adaptations,
 albeit in response to different ecological conditions.
description: # Data from: Feeding strategies of the Pleistocene insular dwarf elephants
 *Palaeoloxodon falconeri* and *Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis* from Sicily
 (Italy) Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.6djh9w1f7](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6djh9w1f7) ##
 Description of the data and file structure **Data from:** Feeding
 strategies of the Pleistocene insular dwarf elephants Palaeoloxodon
 falconeri and Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis from Sicily (Italy) **Dataset
 DOI:** 10.5061/dryad.6djh9w1f7 **Description of the data and file
 structure:** Dental mesowear and microwear raw data. Dental mesowear data
 of *Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis* teeth was collected using a digital
 goniometer with an accuracy of 0.1° (as in Saarinen et al., 2015), model
 DAF-001 from CMT Utensili. The goniometer was modified to fit inside the
 plates by attaching two thin metal extensions to the arms, so that they
 shared the goniometer’s rotational fulcrum and did not need to be
 repositioned for each measurement.  Dental mesowear data of *Palaeoloxodon
 falconeri* were scanned with an Olympus LEXT OLS4000 laser scanning
 confocal microscope, coupling color imaging and laser confocal optical
 systems. Acquisition was carried out on a plate in the central portion at
 2.5x magnification, using both laser and color optics. For slightly larger
 teeth, several images were acquired with a 25% overlapping region and then
 combined together if necessary. Using the proprietary software Lext
 (Olympus), the 3D laser surface reconstructions were processed using a
 noise reduction filter to remove spikes, that may occur when measuring
 rough or highly reflective surfaces and causing the detector pixels
 saturations or extremely low signal detection, respectively. On the 3D
 surfaces, virtual cross-sections of the plates were analysed and angles
 were directly measured on the extracted profiles. Scan results were
 exported in CSV format to allow their use in spreadsheets. For the dental
 microwear analysis, we followed the Solounias & Semprebon (2002)
 protocol. The occlusal surfaces of the teeth were cleaned with acetone and
 then with alcohol (95%). The surfaces were moulded with high-resolution
 silicone (vinyl polysiloxane) and casts were made with clear epoxy resin.
 The casts were examined under incident light using a Nikon Eclipse ME600
 stereomicroscope at 35× mounted with a Canon EOS 500D digital camera. For
 each sample, images were taken every 5 degrees of progressive focus (from
 the top to the base of the selected enamel band) and merged using the
 Helicon Focus software. For each sample, we photographed the central
 lamellae and selected enamel bands with preserved diet-related microwear
 patterns, discarding damaged teeth or specimens with taphonomic
 alterations. Microwear data were collected using the MicroWeaR software
 (Strani et al., 2018). We quantified all categories of microwear features
 in a standard square area of 0.16 mm2 and features were automatically
 divided into scratches and pits based on length/width ratio (≤4 for pit
 and &gt;4 for scratch). For each of these two categories, different
 subcategories based on the diameter (for pits) and width (for scratches)
 were also automatically recorded: small and large pits (by default
 diameter ≤8 and &gt;8 μm, respectively), and fine and coarse scratches (by
 default the width ≤3 and &gt;3 μm, respectively). We also carried out the
 microwear analysis in two different 0.16 mm2 study areas for each specimen
 and then we calculated the average to reduce count errors. SAARINEN, J.,
 KARME, A., CERLING, T., UNO, K., SÄILÄ, L., KASIKI, S., NGENE, S., OBARI,
 T., MBUA, E., MANTHI, F. K. and FORTELIUS, M. 2015. A new tooth wear–based
 dietary analysis method for Proboscidea (Mammalia). Journal of Vertebrate
 Paleontology, 35, e918546. SOLOUNIAS, N., and SEMPREBON, G. M. 2002.
 Advances in the Reconstruction of Ungulate Ecomorphology with Application
 to Early Fossil Equids. American Museum Novitates, 3366 (3366), 1–49.
 STRANI, F., PROFICO, A., MANZI, G., PUSHKINA, D., RAIA, P., SARDELLA, R.
 and DEMIGUEL, D. 2018. MicroWeaR: A new R package for dental microwear
 analysis. Ecology and evolution, 8, 7022–7030. ### Files and variables
 #### File: mesowear.csv **Description:**  ##### Variables * Tool: Tool
 used to measure Mesowear Angles * Specimen: Specimen's number *
 Region: Region of provenance * Locality: Locality of provenance * Tooth:
 Tooth position (uppercase indicate upper tooth, lowercase lower tooth) *
 Side: Left (sx) or right (dx) * L1.1: First Lamellae Angle Measurement #1
 * L1.2: First Lamellae Angle Measurement #2 * L1.3: First Lamellae Angle
 Measurement #3 * Average L1 : Average angle of the First Lamellae *
 L2.1: Second Lamellae Angle Measurement #1 * L2.2: Second Lamellae Angle
 Measurement #2 * L2.3: Second Lamellae Angle Measurement #3 * Average L2 :
 Average angle of the Second Lamellae * L3.1: Third Lamellae Angle
 Measurement #1 * L3.2: Third Lamellae Angle Measurement #2 * L3.3: Third
 Lamellae Angle Measurement #3 * Average L3 : Average angle of the Third
 Lamellae * MWA: Average Mesowear Angle (Mean of Average L1, L2 and L3)
 #### File: microwear.csv **Description:**  ##### Variables *
 Specimen: Specimen's number * Region: Region of provenance *
 Locality: Locality of provenance * Tooth: Tooth position (uppercase
 indicate upper tooth, lowercase lower tooth) * Side: Left (sx) or right
 (dx) * Taxon: *Species* * NSP: Number of small pits * NLP: Number of large
 pits * NP: Number of pits (large + small) * NFS: Number of fine scratches
 * NCS: Number of coarse scratches * NS: Number of scratches (fine +
 coarse) n/a: data not available due to tafonomic defects (in case of
 locality due to missing information) ## Access information Other publicly
 accessible locations of the data: *
 [https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.70036](https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.70036)