Biting mechanics determines craniofacial morphology among extant diprotodont herbivores: dietary predictions for the giant extinct short-faced kangaroo, Simosthenurus occidentalis.

Larger herbivores can act as keystone species which strongly influence their communities. During the Pliocene and Pleistocene, Australia was dominated by a number of large to gigantic marsupial herbivore taxa. Many of these have been understudied quantitatively with regards to their ecology; and identifying the diet of these species will improve our understanding of not only their ecologies, but also of past environments. Recent research has found that cranial morphology among kangaroos and wallabies corresponds with foraging behaviours and mechanical properties of preferred plant tissues. Here we apply shape analysis and computational biomechanics to test two hypotheses: that feeding ecology is associated with craniofacial morphology across a taxonomically broad sample of diprotodont herbivores, and that this association can then be used to predict the diet of an extinct short-faced kangaroo, Simosthenurus occidentalis. We find that biting behaviours are reflected in craniofacial morph...