Implications of diet for the extinction of saber-toothed cats and American lions.

The saber-toothed cat, Smilodon fatalis, and American lion, Panthera atrox, were among the largest terrestrial carnivores that lived during the Pleistocene, going extinct along with other megafauna ∼12,000 years ago. Previous work suggests that times were difficult at La Brea (California) during the...

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Autores principales:	Larisa R G Desantis, Blaine W Schubert, Jessica R Scott, Peter S Ungar
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2012
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/3f45e7b762fa4cba9b28cc185aba6ccc
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:3f45e7b762fa4cba9b28cc185aba6ccc2021-11-18T08:03:42ZImplications of diet for the extinction of saber-toothed cats and American lions.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0052453https://doaj.org/article/3f45e7b762fa4cba9b28cc185aba6ccc2012-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/23300674/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203The saber-toothed cat, Smilodon fatalis, and American lion, Panthera atrox, were among the largest terrestrial carnivores that lived during the Pleistocene, going extinct along with other megafauna ∼12,000 years ago. Previous work suggests that times were difficult at La Brea (California) during the late Pleistocene, as nearly all carnivores have greater incidences of tooth breakage (used to infer greater carcass utilization) compared to today. As Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA) can differentiate between levels of bone consumption in extant carnivores, we use DMTA to clarify the dietary niches of extinct carnivorans from La Brea. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that times were tough at La Brea with carnivorous taxa utilizing more of the carcasses. Our results show no evidence of bone crushing by P. atrox, with DMTA attributes most similar to the extant cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, which actively avoids bone. In contrast, S. fatalis has DMTA attributes most similar to the African lion Panthera leo, implying that S. fatalis did not avoid bone to the extent previously suggested by SEM microwear data. DMTA characters most indicative of bone consumption (i.e., complexity and textural fill volume) suggest that carcass utilization by the extinct carnivorans was not necessarily more complete during the Pleistocene at La Brea; thus, times may not have been "tougher" than the present. Additionally, minor to no significant differences in DMTA attributes from older (∼30-35 Ka) to younger (∼11.5 Ka) deposits offer little evidence that declining prey resources were a primary cause of extinction for these large cats.Larisa R G DesantisBlaine W SchubertJessica R ScottPeter S UngarPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 12, p e52453 (2012)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Larisa R G Desantis Blaine W Schubert Jessica R Scott Peter S Ungar Implications of diet for the extinction of saber-toothed cats and American lions.
description	The saber-toothed cat, Smilodon fatalis, and American lion, Panthera atrox, were among the largest terrestrial carnivores that lived during the Pleistocene, going extinct along with other megafauna ∼12,000 years ago. Previous work suggests that times were difficult at La Brea (California) during the late Pleistocene, as nearly all carnivores have greater incidences of tooth breakage (used to infer greater carcass utilization) compared to today. As Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA) can differentiate between levels of bone consumption in extant carnivores, we use DMTA to clarify the dietary niches of extinct carnivorans from La Brea. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that times were tough at La Brea with carnivorous taxa utilizing more of the carcasses. Our results show no evidence of bone crushing by P. atrox, with DMTA attributes most similar to the extant cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, which actively avoids bone. In contrast, S. fatalis has DMTA attributes most similar to the African lion Panthera leo, implying that S. fatalis did not avoid bone to the extent previously suggested by SEM microwear data. DMTA characters most indicative of bone consumption (i.e., complexity and textural fill volume) suggest that carcass utilization by the extinct carnivorans was not necessarily more complete during the Pleistocene at La Brea; thus, times may not have been "tougher" than the present. Additionally, minor to no significant differences in DMTA attributes from older (∼30-35 Ka) to younger (∼11.5 Ka) deposits offer little evidence that declining prey resources were a primary cause of extinction for these large cats.
format	article
author	Larisa R G Desantis Blaine W Schubert Jessica R Scott Peter S Ungar
author_facet	Larisa R G Desantis Blaine W Schubert Jessica R Scott Peter S Ungar
author_sort	Larisa R G Desantis
title	Implications of diet for the extinction of saber-toothed cats and American lions.
title_short	Implications of diet for the extinction of saber-toothed cats and American lions.
title_full	Implications of diet for the extinction of saber-toothed cats and American lions.
title_fullStr	Implications of diet for the extinction of saber-toothed cats and American lions.
title_full_unstemmed	Implications of diet for the extinction of saber-toothed cats and American lions.
title_sort	implications of diet for the extinction of saber-toothed cats and american lions.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2012
url	https://doaj.org/article/3f45e7b762fa4cba9b28cc185aba6ccc
work_keys_str_mv	AT larisargdesantis implicationsofdietfortheextinctionofsabertoothedcatsandamericanlions AT blainewschubert implicationsofdietfortheextinctionofsabertoothedcatsandamericanlions AT jessicarscott implicationsofdietfortheextinctionofsabertoothedcatsandamericanlions AT petersungar implicationsofdietfortheextinctionofsabertoothedcatsandamericanlions
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Implications of diet for the extinction of saber-toothed cats and American lions.

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