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Sarah Elton's Outputs (84)

Adaptive Radiation (2017)
Book Chapter
Elton, S. (2017). Adaptive Radiation. In A. Fuentes (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of primatology. John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0207

Adaptive radiation is the rapid diversification, from a single common ancestor, of a group of species whose members exhibit a diverse array of adaptations and occupy different ecological niches. Numerous adaptive radiations are evident in the primate... Read More about Adaptive Radiation.

Phylogeny, phylogenetic inference, and cranial evolution in pitheciids and Aotus (2016)
Journal Article
Bjarnason, A., Soligo, C., & Elton, S. (2017). Phylogeny, phylogenetic inference, and cranial evolution in pitheciids and Aotus. American Journal of Primatology, 79(3), Article e22621. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22621

Pitheciids, one of the major radiations of New World monkeys endemic to South and Central America, are distributed in the Amazon and Orinoco basins, and include Callicebus, Cacajao, Chiropotes, and Pithecia. Molecular phylogenetics strongly support p... Read More about Phylogeny, phylogenetic inference, and cranial evolution in pitheciids and Aotus.

Mismatch or mass marketing? Stone Age diets, industrialisation and ultra-processed foods (in Turkish) (2016)
Journal Article
Elton, S. (2016). Mismatch or mass marketing? Stone Age diets, industrialisation and ultra-processed foods (in Turkish). Toplum ve hekim, 31(5), 323-333

The Stone Age diet, which first began to appear in the literature in the 1950s and became prominent in the 1980s and 1990s, has become an increasingly popular type of diet. This type of diet aims to create the analogy of pre-aging people's diet as a... Read More about Mismatch or mass marketing? Stone Age diets, industrialisation and ultra-processed foods (in Turkish).

Quaternary fossil fauna from the Luangwa Valley, Zambia (2016)
Journal Article
Bishop, L., Barham, L., Ditchfield, P., Elton, S., Harcourt-Smith, W., & Dawkins, P. (2016). Quaternary fossil fauna from the Luangwa Valley, Zambia. Journal of Quaternary Science, 31(3), 178-190. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2855

This paper describes a large collection of Quaternary fossil fauna from the Luangwa Rift Valley, Zambia. Stone Age artefacts have been recovered from stratified fluvial contexts, but no in situ fossil faunas have yet been recovered. We report on 500... Read More about Quaternary fossil fauna from the Luangwa Valley, Zambia.

Exploring morphological generality in the Old World monkey postcranium using an ecomorphological framework (2016)
Journal Article
Elton, S., Jansson, A., Meloro, C., Louys, J., Plummer, T., & Bishop, L. C. (2016). Exploring morphological generality in the Old World monkey postcranium using an ecomorphological framework. Journal of Anatomy, 228(4), 534-560. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.12428

Nearly all primates are ecologically dependent on trees, but they are nonetheless found in an enormous range of habitats, from highly xeric environments to dense rainforest. Most primates have a relatively ‘generalised’ skeleton, enabling locomotor f... Read More about Exploring morphological generality in the Old World monkey postcranium using an ecomorphological framework.

Disrupted seasonal biology impacts health, food security and ecosystems (2015)
Journal Article
Stevenson, T., Visser, M., Arnold, W., Barrett, P., Biello, S., Dawson, A., …Helm, B. (2015). Disrupted seasonal biology impacts health, food security and ecosystems. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1817), https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.1453

The rhythm of life on earth is shaped by seasonal changes in the environment. Plants and animals show profound annual cycles in physiology, health, morphology, behaviour and demography in response to environmental cues. Seasonal biology impacts ecosy... Read More about Disrupted seasonal biology impacts health, food security and ecosystems.

Phylogeny, ecology, and morphological evolution in the atelid cranium (2015)
Journal Article
Bjarnason, A., Soligo, C., & Elton, S. (2015). Phylogeny, ecology, and morphological evolution in the atelid cranium. International Journal of Primatology, 36(3), 513-529. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-015-9839-z

Reconstructing evolutionary relationships of living and extinct primate groups requires reliable phylogenetic inference based on morphology, as DNA is rarely preserved in fossil specimens. Atelids (family Atelidae) are a monophyletic clade and one of... Read More about Phylogeny, ecology, and morphological evolution in the atelid cranium.

The potential and pitfalls of using simple dental metrics to infer the diets of African antelopes (Mammalia: Bovidae) (2015)
Journal Article
Louys, J., Meloro, C., Elton, S., Ditchfield, P., & Bishop, L. C. (2015). The potential and pitfalls of using simple dental metrics to infer the diets of African antelopes (Mammalia: Bovidae). Palaeontologia africana, 49, 8-24

The use of mesowear to infer diets of extinct species is fast becoming widespread in palaeoecological studies. Nevertheless, traditional mesowear analyses suffer from a specimen number limitation, in that a minimum number of specimens identified to t... Read More about The potential and pitfalls of using simple dental metrics to infer the diets of African antelopes (Mammalia: Bovidae).

Species, populations and groups in human evolution (2015)
Book Chapter
Elton, S., & Dunn, J. (2015). Species, populations and groups in human evolution. In P. Kreager, B. Winney, S. Ulijaszek, & C. Capelli (Eds.), Population in the human sciences : concepts, models, evidence (401-430). Oxford University Press

Analytical framework for reconstructing heterogeneous environmental variables from mammal community structure (2014)
Journal Article
Louys, J., Meloro, C., Elton, S., Ditchfield, P., & Bishop, L. C. (2015). Analytical framework for reconstructing heterogeneous environmental variables from mammal community structure. Journal of Human Evolution, 78, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.11.001

We test the performance of two models that use mammalian communities to reconstruct multivariate palaeoenvironments. While both models exploit the correlation between mammal communities (defined in terms of functional groups) and arboreal heterogenei... Read More about Analytical framework for reconstructing heterogeneous environmental variables from mammal community structure.

Macaques at the margins: the biogeography and extinction of Macaca sylvanus in Europe (2014)
Journal Article
Elton, S., & O'Regan, H. J. (2014). Macaques at the margins: the biogeography and extinction of Macaca sylvanus in Europe. Quaternary Science Reviews, 96, 117-130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.04.025

The genus Macaca (Primates: Cercopithecidae) originated in Africa, dispersed into Europe in the Late Miocene and resided there until the Late Pleistocene. In this contribution, we provide an overview of the evolutionary history of Macaca in Europe, p... Read More about Macaques at the margins: the biogeography and extinction of Macaca sylvanus in Europe.

Biogeographic variation in the baboon: dissecting the cline (2013)
Journal Article
Dunn, J., Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2013). Biogeographic variation in the baboon: dissecting the cline. Journal of Anatomy, 223(4), 337-352. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.12085

All species demonstrate intraspecific anatomical variation. While generalisations such as Bergman's and Allen's rules have attempted to explain the geographic structuring of variation with some success, recent work has demonstrated limited support fo... Read More about Biogeographic variation in the baboon: dissecting the cline.

Cats in the forest: predicting habitat adaptations from humerus morphometry in extant and fossil Felidae (Carnivora) (2013)
Journal Article
Meloro, C., Elton, S., Louys, J., Bishop, L., & Ditchfield, P. (2013). Cats in the forest: predicting habitat adaptations from humerus morphometry in extant and fossil Felidae (Carnivora). Paleobiology, 39(3), 323-344. https://doi.org/10.1666/12001

Mammalian carnivores are rarely incorporated in paleoenvironmental reconstructions, largely because of their rarity within the fossil record. However, multivariate statistical modeling can be successfully used to quantify specific anatomical features... Read More about Cats in the forest: predicting habitat adaptations from humerus morphometry in extant and fossil Felidae (Carnivora).

The Evolutionary History and Palaeo-Ecology of Primate Predation: Macaca sylvanus from Plio-Pleistocene Europe as a Case Study (2013)
Journal Article
Meloro, C., & Elton, S. (2013). The Evolutionary History and Palaeo-Ecology of Primate Predation: Macaca sylvanus from Plio-Pleistocene Europe as a Case Study. Folia Primatologica, 83(3-6), 216-235. https://doi.org/10.1159/000343494

In this article we briefly review primate interactions with predators throughout their evolutionary history. Like today, predators of past primates were taxonomically diverse, including crocodilians, aquatic mammals, hyaenids, raptors and other prima... Read More about The Evolutionary History and Palaeo-Ecology of Primate Predation: Macaca sylvanus from Plio-Pleistocene Europe as a Case Study.

Clines in Africa: does size vary in the same way among widespread sub-Saharan monkeys? (2012)
Journal Article
Cardini, A., Dunn, J., O'Higgins, P., & Elton, S. (2012). Clines in Africa: does size vary in the same way among widespread sub-Saharan monkeys?. Journal of Biogeography, 40(2), 370-381. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02783.x

Aim We characterize and compare patterns of clinal size variation among diverse widespread sub-Saharan monkeys with the aim of identifying commonalities and differences in biogeographical variation. Thus, we accurately quantify nonlinear clines in re... Read More about Clines in Africa: does size vary in the same way among widespread sub-Saharan monkeys?.

Humeral shape in felids: phylogenetic, locomotor and allometric influences. (2012)
Journal Article
Walmsley, A., Elton, S., Louys, J., Bishop, L., & Meloro, C. (2012). Humeral shape in felids: phylogenetic, locomotor and allometric influences. Journal of Morphology, 273(12), 1424-1438. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.20084

Bone morphology of the cats (Mammalia: Felidae) is influenced by many factors, including locomotor mode, body size, hunting methods, prey size and phylogeny. Here, we investigate the shape of the proximal and distal humeral epiphyses in extant specie... Read More about Humeral shape in felids: phylogenetic, locomotor and allometric influences..