Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, provides the geographic scope for this dataset of dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) for three archaic ungulate genera: *Copecion*, *Ectocion*, and *Sifrhippus*. The data spans the Paleocene-Eocene period, including the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). It was authored by Andrew Schwartz and published on figshare under a CC-BY-4.0 license.
Use Cases
- Modeling dietary shifts in response to climate change based on dental microwear texture data.
- Comparing feeding ecology between archaic ungulate genera *Copecion*, *Ectocion*, and *Sifrhippus*.
- Reconstructing paleoenvironments during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum using inferred herbivore diets.
Strengths
- Data is focused on a specific, significant climate event (the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum).
- Covers three distinct genera (*Copecion*, *Ectocion*, *Sifrhippus*) for comparative analysis.
- Published under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license for reuse.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for statistical methods.
- Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
Provenance
- Source
- figshare
- Collection Method
- Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) performed on fossil specimens.
- Time Range
- Paleocene-Eocene period, including the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-03-17 14:31:58; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, USA.