Multiproxy reconstruction of the palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment of the Middle Miocene Somosaguas site (Madrid, Spain) using herbivore dental enamel

Domingo, Laura; Cuevas-González, Jaime; Grimes, Stephen T.; Fernández, Manuel Hérnandez; López-Martı́nez, Nieves

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.11.006

Cited by 52 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…The d 13 C composition of herbivores reflects the range of plant resources in their diets [12][13][14]. Along modern climatic gradients, as vegetation becomes more forested, the 13 C of plants becomes depleted ('canopy effect' [43]) so d 13 C values also reflect the existing canopy cover in the habitats where these animals lived.…”

Section: (C) Isotopic Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Differences among species in d 13 C values were evaluated with analysis of variance and post hoc Tukey tests [13,14,28]. These tests were performed separately for herbivores and carnivores to account for differences in their dietary resources.…”

Section: (D) Statistical Analysis and Characterization Of Dietmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For mammals, the d 13 C composition of tooth enamel tracks the values of their diet [12][13][14]. In modern ecosystems with diverse carnivorous mammals, the apex predators compete intensively over prey and carcasses [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Resource partitioning among top predators in a Miocene food web

Domingo

Badgley

et al. 2013

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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The exceptional fossil sites of Cerro de los Batallones (Madrid Basin, Spain) contain abundant remains of Late Miocene mammals. From these fossil assemblages, we have inferred diet, resource partitioning and habitat of three sympatric carnivorous mammals based on stable isotopes. The carnivorans include three apex predators: two sabre-toothed cats (Felidae) and a bear dog (Amphicyonidae). Herbivore and carnivore carbon isotope (d 13 C) values from tooth enamel imply the presence of a woodland ecosystem dominated by C 3 plants. d 13 C values and mixing-model analyses suggest that the two sabre-toothed cats, one the size of a leopard and the other the size of a tiger, consumed herbivores with similar d 13 C values from a more wooded portion of the ecosystem. The two sabre-toothed cats probably hunted prey of different body sizes, and the smaller species could have used tree cover to avoid encounters with the larger felid. For the bear dog, d 13 C values are higher and differ significantly from those of the sabre-toothed cats, suggesting a diet that includes prey from more open woodland. Coexistence of the sabre-toothed cats and the bear dog was likely facilitated by prey capture in different portions of the habitat. This study demonstrates the utility of stable isotope analysis for investigating the behaviour and ecology of members of past carnivoran guilds.

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Section: (C) Isotopic Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: (D) Statistical Analysis and Characterization Of Dietmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Resource partitioning among top predators in a Miocene food web

Domingo

Badgley

et al. 2013

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…Variations in their ecological characteristics can be used to detect environmental constraints. In fact, shifts in their feeding habits (Domingo et al, 2009(Domingo et al, , 2012De Miguel et al, 2011;Zhou et al, 2011), locomotor adaptations (Lewis, 1997;Samuels and Van Valkenburgh, 2009;Meloro, 2011), and body size or morphology (Legendre, 1986;Shepherd, 1998;Rodríguez, 2001) have been found to correlate to climate and ecological dynamics. Besides, body size has been traditionally related to climate via Bergmann's and Allen's rules (Bergmann, 1847;Allen, 1877), which stated a latitudinal variation pattern in mammal (and birds) body size and shape.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The well-studied mammalian groups from the Iberian Peninsula (Meulen and Daams, 1992;Fraile et al, 2000;Hernández Fernández et al, 2003, 2006aDomingo et al, 2009Domingo et al, , 2012, among the richest of the Neogene (Daams et al, 1977;Alba et al, 2001), represent a good opportunity to analyse ecomorphological aspects of fossil assemblages and their relationship to the climatic change that took place ~ 14 Ma ago. Particularly, the evolution of the body size community structure of the middle Miocene prey fauna from the Madrid Basin allows us to explore the connection between ecological community dynamics and macroenvironmental changes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Palaeoenvironmental analysis of the Aragonian (middle Miocene) mammalian faunas from the Madrid Basin based on body-size structure

Yelo

Cano

Cantalapiedra

et al. 2014

Journal of Iberian Geology

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As a consequence of the growth of the Antarctic ice-sheet during the middle Miocene, a global decrease of temperatures and an associated increase in aridity provoked several environmental changes all around the world. Such environmental variations can be detected in the continental record of the mammalian prey community structure using a synecological approach. Because of the good quality of its faunas, the rich Aragonian vertebrate fossil record from the Madrid Basin (Spain) appears as a good candidate to explore these environmental changes. In order to analyse the climatic evolution of the Iberian Peninsula associated to the Global Cooling Event, two classic palaeosynecological methodologies (cenograms and body size diversity), based on body-size community structure, were applied to 6 fossil sites from the Madrid Basin, ranging over 2 million years (15.5 -13.5 Ma). To establish a comparative framework, we used the ecological faunal data from 100 modern localities uniformly distributed all around the world. Our palaeoenvironmental inference is based on multivariate discriminant analysis of the dataset containing both modern and fossil mammals. Finally, we can conclude that the Aragonian mammalian assemblage from the Madrid Basin showed a predominance of semiarid environments with pulses of higher aridity in biozones Dc, E and F associated with the Global Cooling Event of the middle Miocene.

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