Evolution of community composition in several carnivore palaeoguilds from the European Pleistocene: the role of interspecific competition

Garcı́a, Nuria; Virgós, Emílio

doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.2006.00004.x

Cited by 24 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…However, there is a clear size partitioning with the Arno dog being classified as 'small-medium', while only one C. etruscus is predicted as 'small prey' with the others grouped into 'large prey' category. Due to ecological character displacement, it is possible that morphological variation in these taxa was broad and influenced by presence or absence of larger competitors (García & Virgós, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding habits of extant and fossil canids as determined by their skull geometry

2014

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The canids belong to one of the most prominent families of mammalian carnivores. Feeding adaptations of extant species is well documented by field observations; however, we are still missing palaeoecological insights for many enigmatic fossil specimens. We employ geometric morphometrics to quantify skull size and shape in extant and fossil members of the Canini tribe, inclusive of jackals and wolf-like taxa. Skull data are tested to identify correlates of dietary adaptations in extant species for predicting adaptations in fossils. Main vectors of shape variation correlate with the relative skull-palatal length, the position of the upper carnassial tooth and the anterior tip of the secondary palate. Allometry occurs in the palatal shape but size explains only a small fraction (about 4%) of shape variance. Although we quantified only palatal and tooth shape for the inclusion of fragmentary fossils, discriminant function analysis successfully classify extant Canini in dietary groups (small, medium and large prey specialist) with 89% of accuracy. The discriminant functions provide insights into many enigmatic specimens such as Eucyon adoxus (=small prey), fossil jackal-like from Koobi Fora formation (=small prey) and the Plio-Pleistocene Old World canid guild (Canis etruscus, C. arnensis and Lycaon falconeri). Clearly, both skull size and shape are excellent predictors of feeding habits in Canini thus also provide information about fossil taxonomic affinities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding habits of extant and fossil canids as determined by their skull geometry

2014

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“…It is important to understand how ecosystems function and change through time, and species interactions are an integral part of any ecosystem (61)(62)(63)(64). Some of the carnivore species that were present at RLB are still extant today (e.g., coyotes, gray wolves, mountain lions, etc.).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution in coyotes (Canis latrans) in response to the megafaunal extinctions

Meachen

Samuels

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Living coyotes modify their behavior in the presence of larger carnivores, such as wolves. However, little is known about the effects of competitor presence or absence on morphological change in coyotes or wolves over long periods of time. We examined the evolution of coyotes and wolves through time from the late Pleistocene, during which many large carnivorous species coexisted as predators and competitors, to the Recent; this allowed us to investigate evolutionary changes in these species in response to climate change and megafaunal extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene. We measured postcranial skeletal morphologies of wolves (Canis lupus) and coyotes (C. latrans) from Pleistocene-aged tar deposits, as well as early, mid, and recent Holocene populations of both. We found few morphological differences between Pleistocene and Holocene wolf populations. Conversely, we found many differences in coyotes: Pleistocene coyotes were larger and more robust than Holocene populations. However, within 1,000 y of the megafaunal extinctions, coyotes are morphologically indistinguishable from modern populations. We cannot attribute these differences directly to climate change because modern coyotes do not follow Bergmann's rule, which states body size increases with decreasing temperature. Instead, we suggest that Pleistocene coyotes may have been larger and more robust in response to larger competitors and a larger-bodied prey base. Although we cannot separate competition from predator-prey interactions, this study indicates that the effects of biotic interactions can be detected in the fossil record.Pleistocene extinctions | Canidae | Rancho La Brea

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“…Previous studies show that energetic scaling dictates carnivorans above 21 kg will not be able to make a living catching only small prey (Carbone et al 1999). Body size in carnivorans is also intimately related to carnivore-carnivore interactions (Rosenzweig 1966;Dayan and Simberloff 1996;Ben-Moshe et al 2001;García and Virgó s 2007). Size structuring in niche partitioning has been shown in many extant carnivore assemblages (Dayan et al 1990(Dayan et al , 1992Simberloff 1994, 2005), and in extinct hypercarnivore assemblages of Europe (García and Virgó s 2007); indicating that size in carnivorans is important for both predator-prey interactions and competitive interactions with other carnivorans.…”

Section: Massmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Competition can also result in size segregation, and in extreme cases, this phenomenon could result in traits that are evenly dispersed from each other (Rosenzweig 1966). Evenly spaced mass distributions seem to be a communitydependent phenomenon and have been found in some studies (Ben-Moshe et al 2001;García and Virgó s 2007) but not others (Kiltie 1984).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This deep-time perspective can reveal patterns that appear over longer periods than seen in even long-term studies of modern communities. Multiple studies have made use of vertebrate fossils to reconstruct past habitats and ecosystem interactions among extinct species (Andrews et al 1979;Janis et al 2000;García and Virgó s 2007;Lawing et al 2012). Additionally, it is important to note that vertebrate species diversity can be reliably determined from the fossil record, but species abundances cannot (Damuth 1982).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Novel Multiscale Assessment of Community Assembly across Time, Space, and Functional Niche

Meachen

Roberts²

2014

The American Naturalist

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A basic ecological tenet is that organisms in a community occupy different niches and have different traits, but how consistently competition, selection, and phylogenetic effects structure communities remains uncertain. Are all communities created equal? We examine how mammalian carnivoran communities are assembled with regard to mass, diet, and locomotion. Here, we use a multivariate nearest-neighbor framework to examine multiple North American localities spanning 3 million years to determine whether community assembly is consistent through time and four modern localities around the world to assess the effects of habitat. Additionally, we examined how trait patterns differ among families and how familylevel evolutionary effects affect them. We found some broadly consistent patterns, although differences are more pronounced than similarities. Diet is more affected by evolutionary constraints than by time or place. Locomotion is most affected by habitat, and the ability to partition niches is related to habitat heterogeneity. Mass is influenced by family, but also by habitat and the mass-selective extinction events at the end-Pleistocene. These findings indicate that assembly patterns are not largely determined by within-community interactions but instead show that each community is a product of its independent variables.

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Evolution of community composition in several carnivore palaeoguilds from the European Pleistocene: the role of interspecific competition

Cited by 24 publications

References 47 publications

Feeding habits of extant and fossil canids as determined by their skull geometry

Feeding habits of extant and fossil canids as determined by their skull geometry

Evolution in coyotes (Canis latrans) in response to the megafaunal extinctions

A Novel Multiscale Assessment of Community Assembly across Time, Space, and Functional Niche

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