Ecometrics and the paleoecological implications of Pleistocene faunas from the western coastal plains of the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa
Ecometrics and the paleoecological implications of Pleistocene faunas from the western coastal plains of the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa
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DOI：
10.1002/jqs.3247
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发表时间：
2020-09-21
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Stynder, Deano
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Faith, J. Tyler;Braun, David R.;Stynder, Deano
更新世有蹄类动物群落从西部沿海平原的南非的好望角植物区系（CFR）是多样的，并占主导地位的食草动物，在该地区的全新世和历史动物群，这是相对物种贫乏，占主导地位的小型身体浏览器和混合饲料。更新世动物群明显暗示了草地栖息地的扩张，但今天该地区典型的夏季干旱季节无法生存的反刍食草动物的存在表明了其他重要的古生态变化。在这里，我们使用牙齿生态计量学来探索该地区的更新世动物群的古生态意义。我们发现，牙齿性状（hypsodonty和咬合地形）的有蹄类动物，发生在历史上的CFR跟踪每年和夏季干旱，我们用这些关系来重建过去的干旱。我们的研究结果表明，更新世动物群表明古环境平均比今天干旱，包括在夏季，这与其他证据一致，表明地下水位较高，水源充足的栖息地扩大。更大的水的可用性可以解释为较低的温度和减少蒸散在较冷的更新世阶段，可能再加上增强地下水补给，由于冬季降水量增加。
The Pleistocene ungulate communities from the western coastal plains of South Africa's Cape Floristic Region (CFR) are diverse and dominated by grazers, in contrast to the region's Holocene and historical faunas, which are relatively species-poor and dominated by small-bodied browsers and mixed feeders. An expansion of grassy habitats is clearly implied by the Pleistocene faunas, but the presence of ruminant grazers that cannot survive the summer dry season typical of the region today suggests other important paleoecological changes. Here we use dental ecometrics to explore the paleoecological implications of the region's Pleistocene faunas. We show that the dental traits (hypsodonty and occlusal topography) of the ungulates that occurred historically in the CFR track annual and summer aridity, and we use these relationships to reconstruct past aridity. Our results indicate that the Pleistocene faunas signal paleoenvironments that were on average less arid than today, including during the summer, consistent with other lines of evidence that suggest a higher water table and expansion of well-watered habitats. Greater water availability can be explained by lower temperature and reduced evapotranspiration during cooler phases of the Pleistocene, probably coupled with enhanced groundwater recharge due to increased winter precipitation.