Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, provides the geographic scope for this dataset of dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) measurements. It covers three archaic ungulate genera—Copecion, Ectocion, and Sifrhippus—across the Paleocene-Eocene transition, including the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. The dataset was authored by Andrew Schwartz and is available 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 like Copecion, Ectocion, and Sifrhippus.
- Reconstructing paleoenvironments during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum using proxy dietary data.
- Analyzing evolutionary adaptations in herbivore dentition across a major geological boundary.
Strengths
- Focuses on a specific, significant climate event—the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.
- Includes data for three distinct genera (Copecion, Ectocion, Sifrhippus) for comparative analysis.
- Released under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license, facilitating reuse.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical modeling.
- 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 to Eocene, including the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-03-17 14:44:18; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, USA.