ROW: Trophic Diversity in Ancient and Modern Predator Guilds: An Ecomorphological Analysis

化石群落的研究对生态学家有很大的帮助， 以及古生物学家。 化石记录可以提供 不受人类影响的社区， 记载了历史进程的影响，如 灭绝和移民，对群落结构的影响。 营养 大型陆生哺乳动物行业协会的多样性 在过去的3700万年里北美洲的掠食者 探讨了 古海鳗的年龄相差2到4岁 百万年，将随着时间的推移与四个样本进行比较 以前分析过最近的公会。 采样的古动物群 包括在大规模灭绝事件之前或之后发生一些事件， 有些地区缺少典型的现代食肉动物，如猫， 土狼 利用生态形态学方法， 将根据体型进行评估， 犬科动物牙齿的功能测量。 测量包括 切片、研磨和碎骨能力的估计， 反映了肉、骨和非脊椎动物的相对比例 饮食中的食物。 主成分分析将 应用于这些数据，以在 来观察物种在行会内的分布。 物种 包装，如通过分类群之间的欧几里得距离测量，将是 与假设的，随机生成的 公会 此外，还研究了黑鲷的数量和体型分布， 将对每个时间段的猎物物种进行量化， 资源特征对行业协会构成的影响。 研究结果应表明一般规则，如果它们存在，捕食者 行业协会结构，可能会有广泛的影响， 群落生态学

The study of fossil comunities has much to offer ecologists, as well as paleontologists. The fossil record can provide communities undisturbed by human influence over a time scale that chronicles the influence of historical processes, such as extinction and immigration, on community structure. Trophic diversity within the guild of large, terrestrial mammalian predators in North America over the last 37 million years will be explored. The paleoguilds, separated in age by two to four million years, will be compared over time to a sample of four previously analyzed Recent guilds. The sampled paleofaunas include some which precede or follow mass extinction events, and some that are missing such typical modern carnivores as cats and hyaenas. Using an ecomorphological approach, trophic diversity will be assessed by body size and previously demonstrated, functional measurements of canivore teeth. Measurements include estimates of slicing, grinding and bone-crushing abilities and reflect the relative proportion of meat, bone, and non-vertebrate foods in the diet. A principal component analysis will be applied to these data to create a multivariate morphospace in which to view the distribution of species within guilds. Species packing, as measured by Euclidean distance between taxa, will be compared among guilds with hypothetical, randomly generated guilds. In addition, the number and body size distribution of prey species will be quantified for each time period to explore the influence of resource characteristics on guild composition. Results should suggest general rules, if they exist, of predator guild structure that are likely to have broad implications for community ecology.