A late Pleistocene fossil from Northeastern China is the first record of the dire wolf (Carnivora: Canis dirus) in Eurasia
A late Pleistocene fossil from Northeastern China is the first record of the dire wolf (Carnivora: Canis dirus) in Eurasia
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DOI：
10.1016/j.quaint.2020.09.054
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发表时间：
2021-05-06
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
Ni, Xijun
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lu, Dan;Yang, Yangheshan;Ni, Xijun
恐狼是更新世时期北美洲最成功的顶级掠食者之一。它以北美南部最为出名，甚至还迁移到了南美洲。恐狼化石在北美洲北纬 42 度以北地区非常罕见。这种分布支持了这样一种信念，即北美高纬度地区的低温和冰盖对恐狼的扩散形成了难以逾越的障碍。在这里，我们报告了欧亚大陆恐狼化石的首次记录。该化石是从中国东北哈尔滨市附近的晚更新世水下沙矿遗址中发现的带有牙齿的部分下颌碎片。同一地点的其他哺乳动物化石表明，这种恐狼与欧亚大陆典型的猛犸象-披毛犀动物群共存。新发现的标本具有巨大的m1；比同一地区的灰狼和其他大型犬科动物大得多。巨大的 m1 三角函数占其总长度的很大比例。 m1 talonid 被减少，但保留了一个小的 entoconid。 m2-3 肺泡表明这两个牙齿比灰狼的牙齿小。这些形态的组合只存在于恐狼身上。当比较亚洲和北美中型和大型食肉动物的身体质谱时，亚洲恐狼占据的位置几乎与斑鬣狗（Crocuta crocuta ultima）重叠。在更新世晚期，C. crocuta ultima 是亚洲分布最广泛、占主导地位的食肉动物之一。来自鬣狗的竞争可能使亚洲恐狼的数量保持在非常低的水平，导致它们在亚洲像化石一样稀有。
The dire wolf was one of the successful top predators in North America during the Pleistocene. It is best known from the southern part of North America, and it even immigrated to South America. Fossils of dire wolves are very rare north of 42- North latitude in North America. That distribution supported the belief that the low temperatures and ice sheets in the higher latitudes of North American formed an insurmountable barrier for the dispersal of dire wolves. Here we report the first record of the dire wolf fossil in Eurasia. The fossil is a partial mandibular fragment with a tooth recovered from a Late Pleistocene underwater sand mine site near the city of Harbin in Northeastern China. Other mammalian fossils from the same site suggest that this dire wolf coexisted with the typical Mammuthus-Coelodonta fauna of Eurasia. The newly discovered specimen has a huge m1; much larger than gray wolves and other large canids from the same region. The massive m1 trigonid accounts for a high percentage of its overall length. The m1 talonid is reduced, but retains a small entoconid. The m2-3 alveoli suggest that the two teeth were smaller than those of the gray wolf. The combination of these morphologies is present only in the dire wolf. When the body mass spectra of medium and large-bodied carnivores from Asia and North America were compared, the Asian dire wolf occupies a position nearly overlapping the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta ultima). During the Late Pleistocene, C. crocuta ultima was one of the most widely distributed and dominant carnivores in Asia. Competition from hyenas may have kept dire wolf Asian populations at very low levels leading to their rarity as fossils rare in Asia.