Habitat changes and changing predatory habits in North American fossil canids.
The spread of open grassy habitats and the evolution of long-legged herbivorous mammals with high-crowned cheek teeth have been viewed as an example of coevolution. Previous studies indicate that specialized predatory techniques in carnivores do not correlate with the spread of open habitats in North America. Here we analyse new data on elbow-joint shape for North American canids over the past ∼37 million years and show that incipiently specialized species first appeared along with the initial spread of open habitats in the late Oligocene. Elbow-joint morphologies indicative of the behavior of modern pounce-pursuit predators emerged by the late Miocene coincident with a shift in plant communities from C3 to C4 grasses. Finally, pursuit canids first emerged during the Pleistocene. Our results indicate that climate change and its impact on vegetation and habitat structure can be critical for the emergence of ecological innovations and can alter the direction of lineage evolution.
Departamento de Ecología y Geología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071-Málaga, Spain.
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Figueirido
Departamento de Ecología y Geología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071-Málaga, Spain.
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Martín-Serra
Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, New York 10024, USA.
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Tseng
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, 29016 Rhode Island, USA.
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Janis
D000818:Animals; D046028:Canidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D005580:Fossils / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D009656:North America; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*