Inferences concerning the lives of extinct animals
are difficult to obtain from the fossil record. Here
we present a novel approach to the study of extinct
carnivores, using a comparison between fossil
records (nZ3324) found in Late Pleistocene tar
seeps at Rancho La Brea in North America and
counts (nZ4491) from playback experiments used
to estimate carnivore abundance in Africa. Playbacks
and tar seep deposits represent competitive,
potentially dangerous encounters where multiple
predators are lured by dying herbivores. Consequently,
in both records predatory mammals and
birds far outnumber herbivores. In playbacks, two
large social species, lions, Panthera leo, and
spotted hyenas, Crocuta crocuta, actively moved
towards the sounds of distressed prey and made
up 84 per cent of individuals attending. Small
social species (jackals) were next most common
and solitary species of all sizes were rare. In the La
Brea record, two species dominated, the presumably
social dire wolf Canis dirus (51%), and the
sabretooth cat Smilodon fatalis (33%). As in the
playbacks, a smaller social canid, the coyote Canis
latrans, was third most common (8%), and known
solitary species were rare (!4%). The predominance
of Smilodon and other striking similarities
between playbacks and the fossil record support
the conclusion that Smilodon was social.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:tut/oai:encore.tut.ac.za:d1000392 |
| Date | 23 February 2009 |
| Creators | Carbone, C, Maddox, T, Funston, PJ, Mills, MGL, Grether, GF, Van Valkenburgh, B |
| Publisher | The Royal Society |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | |
| Rights | The Royal Society |
| Relation | Biology Letters |
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