Topic
Hypercarnivore
About: Hypercarnivore is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 10 publications have been published within this topic receiving 420 citations. The topic is also known as: obligate carnivore.
Papers
TL;DR: It is clear that the basic pattern of adaptive diversity in dental morphology among coexisting carnivores was established at least 32 million years ago and it appears that interspecific competition for food has acted similarly to produce adaptive divergence among sympatric predators in com- munities that differ widely in time, space, and taxonomic composition.
Abstract: Trophic diversity within guilds of terrestrial predators is explored in three modern and two ancient communities. The modern communities span a range of environments including sa- vannah, rainforest, and temperate forest. The paleocommunities are North American, Orellan (31- 29 Ma), and late Hemphillian (7-6 Ma), respectively. The predator guilds are compared in terms of: 1) species richness; 2) the array of feeding types; and 3) the extent of morphological divergence among sympatric species. Feeding type is determined from dental measurements that reflect the proportion of meat, bone, and non-vertebrate foods in the diet. Measurements include estimates of canine shape, tooth size, cutting blade length, and grinding molar area. Morphological divergence among sympatric predators is measured by calculating Euclidean distances among species in a six- dimensional morphospace. Results indicate that the number of predator and prey species are roughly correlated in both ancient and modern communities. Two of the predator guilds, the late Hemp- hillian and modern Yellowstone, contain relatively few species and appear to be the result of extinction without replacement. Despite differences in history, age, and environment, the extent of morphological divergence within guilds does not differ significantly for the sampled commu- nities. It is clear that the basic pattern of adaptive diversity in dental morphology among coexisting carnivores was established at least 32 million years ago. It appears that interspecific competition for food has acted similarly to produce adaptive divergence among sympatric predators in com- munities that differ widely in time, space, and taxonomic composition.
294 citations
TL;DR: The ecological role of proviverrines between the continents was remarkable different, while they showed a large diversity especially in size in Europe, they were restricted to weights lower than 10 kg in North America.
69 citations
TL;DR: Both skull size and shape are excellent predictors of feeding habits in Canini and provide information about fossil taxonomic affinities, and discriminant function analysis successfully classify extant Canini in dietary groups with 89% of accuracy.
Abstract: 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.
38 citations
TL;DR: Examination of postcanine dentition of modern and fossil carnivorans using quantifications of occlusal radii-of-curvature (ROC) and correlate this morphology with feeding behavior to deduce the carcass-processing capabilities of the Plio-Pleistocene carnivores of South Africa confirms that Chasmaporthetes was probably a hypercarnivore and not a durophage like the modern hyenas.
28 citations
TL;DR: Application of the scoring method to extinct carnivorans suggests that the Plio-Pleistocene hyaenid Chasmaporthetes was hypercarnivorous, similar to modern felids, and not durophagous, like the confamilial modern hyenas.
Abstract: Morphometric analyses of carnivoran dentition (e.g. linear measurements of length and width) have been used to separate taxa according to broad dietary categories. While these studies generally discriminate the diets of carnivorans at the family level, analysis of a previously underappreciated qualitative dental feature of carnivorans, premolar intercuspid notches (the notches between the accessory cuspids), allows discrimination of the carcass-processing abilities within families. In this study, intercuspid notch characteristics are scored, and the high correlations of the interspecific variation with the detailed carcass-processing abilities of a broad range of extant taxa allows for substantial discriminatory inference of the carcass-processing abilities of the Plio-Pleistocene carnivores of South Africa. Application of the scoring method to extinct carnivorans suggests that the Plio-Pleistocene hyaenid Chasmaporthetes was hypercarnivorous, similar to modern felids, and not durophagous, like the confamilial modern hyenas. Most surprisingly, and contrary to current hypotheses, these analyses suggest that the sabertooth felids were less carnivorous than modern felids. This new technique identifies subtle dietary differences between closely related species that are not captured by other means of dental-dietary inference.
27 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 1 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2019 | 1 |
| 2015 | 1 |
| 2013 | 1 |
| 2011 | 1 |