The carnivoran fauna of Rancho La Brea: Average or aberrant?
The carnivoran fauna of Rancho La Brea: Average or aberrant?
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DOI：
10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.02.022
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发表时间：
2012-04-15
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
Davis, Edward B.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
McHorse, Brianna K.;Orcutt, John D.;Davis, Edward B.
拉布雷亚牧场晚更新世的沥青渗漏区以其令人印象深刻的食肉动物群而闻名，这些食肉动物构成了保存完好的动物群的绝大多数。特别令人感兴趣的是大量的恐狼和剑齿虎标本。屠体支配，即捕食者对被困猎物进行激烈竞争的假设，可以解释这种捕食者陷阱的机制。大型群居动物在争夺尸体的过程中表现最好，因此犬科犬和蛇毒剑齿虎的优势被视为它们群居性的证据。然而，尚无研究定量确定拉布雷亚牧场的食肉动物物种相对丰度是否与加利福尼亚或整个北美存在显着差异。我们将拉布雷亚牧场动物群的已识别标本 (NISP) 数量与 FAUNMAP II 数据库编制的区域和大陆动物群数据进行比较，以检验这一假设。我们的研究结果证实，拉布雷亚牧场的食肉动物群是独一无二的，其保存模式通常支持尸体占主导地位的假说以及蛇蜥的社会性。 (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. 保留所有权利。
The late Pleistocene asphalt seeps of Rancho La Brea are well-known for their impressive assemblage of carnivorans, which make up the vast majority of the preserved fauna. Of particular interest is the large number of dire wolf and sabertooth cat specimens. Carcass domination, the hypothesis that predators engaged in intense competition for trapped prey, may explain the mechanism of this predator trap. Large and social animals would have fared best during competition over carcasses, so the preponderance of Canis dirus and Smilodon fatalis has been seen as evidence of their sociality. However, no studies have quantitatively determined whether the relative carnivoran species abundances in Rancho La Brea differ significantly from those in California or North America at large. We compare numbers of identified specimens (NISP) from the Rancho La Brea fauna to regional and continental faunal data compiled from the FAUNMAP II database to test this hypothesis. Our results confirm that the carnivoran fauna in Rancho La Brea is unique, with preservation patterns generally supporting the carcass domination hypothesis as well as the sociality of S. fatalis. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.