Data from: Relationship between dietary niche breadth and species durations of Canids in the John Day community

Increased dietary specialization has been considered a significant
predictor for risk of extinction within the fossil record, yet dietary
breadth is infrequently quantified via behavioral data for extinct
species. Using the fossil record of the John Day Formation, we
reconstructed dietary niche breadth for the regional community of canids
via morphological tooth traits and dental microwear textures to assess how
measures of dietary behavior and plasticity might influence species
durations. This dataset contains the list of all specimens
analyzed for this project along with DMTA attribute values for each
specimen, standard ellipse volumes (SEV), and general locality
information. We found that signals of dietary behavior, as inferred from
dietary niche breadth estimated via dental microwear textures, showed a
stronger relationship with lineage durations than morphological tooth
traits. Specifically, dietary niche breadth was negatively associated with
increased species durations. These results suggest the relationship
between overall dental morphology and dietary behaviors is more nuanced
than previously expected and that the contribution of dietary flexibility
irrespective of tooth morphology to extinction risk deserves further
attention.