Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Charles-Dominique T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5035896 | biostudies-other | 2016 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20160906 38
Savannas first began to spread across Africa during the Miocene. A major hypothesis for explaining this vegetation change is the increase in C4 grasses, promoting fire. We investigated whether mammals could also have contributed to savanna expansion by using spinescence as a marker of mammal herbivory. Looking at the present distribution of 1,852 tree species, we established that spinescence is mainly associated with two functional types of mammals: large browsers and medium-sized mixed feeders. ...[more]