SABERTOOTHS: WHAT, WHEN, HOW, AND WHY- A WORKSHOP APPROACH TO THE ENIGMA, May 12-14, 2008 on the campus of Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho

剑齿：什么，什么时候，怎样，为什么：解开谜团的捷径威廉·阿克斯特在过去的5000万年里，至少有5个食肉哺乳动物的谱系，从有袋类动物到原始的胎盘齿兽再到胎盘食肉动物，进化出了剑齿的特征，结果却灭绝了——今天一个也不存在。长期以来，古生物学家和普通公众一直对剑齿哺乳动物的极端、甚至奇怪的适应能力着迷。这种兴趣经常导致同样奇怪的假设，如使用军刀状的上犬齿，包括切瓜，海象状的软体动物捕食，吸血和爬树辅助装置，类似于巡边员的马刺。在科学和通俗文学中，剑齿食肉动物经常被归为一种单一现象或生态形态。虽然剑齿食肉动物的某些主要的基本形态模式是共同的，但在过去的几十年里，对不同种类之间细节差异的识别和解释已经得到了突出的进展。与此同时，越来越明显的是，剑齿可以作为适应和进化的典范，至少同样明显的是，科学文献对这些独特的生物只有部分和零星的了解。但是，通过更好地了解剑齿食肉动物，哪些问题可能得到回答，或者至少可以得到解决？剑齿基本形态的变化是什么意思？它们是否构成了有意义的图案？为什么剑齿的形态在不同大陆不同时期的不同食肉哺乳动物群体中进化了很多次，却每次都灭绝了，而显然合适的猎物却存活了下来？它们的灭绝对其他高度食肉哺乳动物和幸存下来的食草动物有什么影响？它们的灭绝是否能说明许多现代大型食肉动物数量减少和最终灭绝的潜在影响？剑齿虎食肉哺乳动物不仅提出了有趣而重要的研究问题，而且公众对剑齿虎超大的上犬齿的迷恋提供了一个不寻常的机会，可以利用这些灭绝的哺乳动物来说明主要的生物学概念，包括进化、古地理、同源性和功能形态学。关于剑齿食肉动物的功能形态和趋同进化的某些方面已经写了很多，但它们的潜力几乎没有被触及。在古生物学文献中，剑齿经常被认为是形态特征的承受者，而不是一个完整的有机体。缺乏凝聚力的一个主要原因是，研究剑齿的不同研究人员分散在几个大陆，他们研究对象的遗骸也是如此。另一个原因是，从未有过这样的机会，让大量剑齿虎研究的学生能够相互交流，为未来的工作发展愿景，特别是合作努力，将最新的方法与标准的方法结合起来，从一个整体的角度来看待剑齿虎食肉动物。视角。这个为期三天的国际研讨会将于2008年5月12日至14日在爱达荷州波卡特洛爱达荷州立大学校园举行，它将通过改善交流、更好地分享研究人员之间的信息、促进合作和多学科研究、提高我们将剑齿动物视为动态、综合生物的能力，来增加我们对剑齿哺乳动物的认识。公共教育目标包括利用剑齿作为公共教育模型的方法，包括进化过程、灭绝、同源和类比、古生态学和地质时间。

SABER-TOOTHS: WHAT, WHEN, HOW, AND WHY: A WORKSHOPAPPROACH TO THE ENIGMAWilliam AkerstenDuring the past 50 million years, at least five lineages of carnivorous mammals, from marsupials through the primitive placental creodonts to the derived placental carnivores have evolved saber-tooth characteristics only to become extinct - none exist today. Paleontologists and the general public have long been fascinated by the extreme, even bizarre, adaptations of saber-toothed mammals. This interest often led to equally bizarre hypotheses as to the use of the saber-like upper canine teeth including melon slicing, walrus-like mollusk grubbing, blood sucking, and tree climbing aids analogous to linesmen spurs. In both the scientific and popular literature, saber-toothed carnivores have often been lumped as a single phenomenon or ecomorph. While certain major basic morphologic patterns are common to saber-toothed carnivores, recognition and interpretation of differences in detail among the various kinds have gained prominence during the past several decades. At the same time that it is becoming more obvious that saber-tooths can serve as exemplars of adaptation and evolution, it is at least equally obvious that the scientific literature yields only partial and sporadic insights into these unique creatures. But what questions can potentially be answered, or at least attacked, through a better understanding of saber-toothed carnivores? What is the meaning of the variations on the basic saber-tooth morphology and do they constitute meaningful patterns? Why and how did the saber-tooth morphology evolve somany times in different groups of carnivorous mammals living at different times on different continents only to become extinct each time while apparently suitable prey survived? What effect did their extinction have on other highly carnivorous mammals and on the herbivores which survived them and can their extinctions shed some light on the potential effects of the reduction and possible ultimate loss of many modern large carnivores? Not only do saber-toothed carnivorous mammals pose intriguing and important research questions, the public fascination with the oversized upper canines of saber-tooths provides an unusual opportunity to use these extinct mammals to illustrate major biologic concepts including evolution, paleogeography, homology, and functional morphology. Much has been written regarding certain aspects of the functional morphology and convergent evolution of saber-toothed carnivores, but their potential has barely been touched. Saber-tooths frequently been treated in the paleontologic literature as bearers of morphologic features, rather than as integrated organisms. A major reason for this lack of cohesiveness is that the various researchers working on saber-tooths are scattered on several continents as are the remains of the objects of their researches. Another reason is that there has never been one occasion during which a significant number of saber-tooth students have been able to interact to develop a vision for future work, especially collaborative efforts, combining the newest methodologies with standard approaches, and viewing sabertoothed carnivores from a ?holistic? perspective. This three day international workshop, May 12-14, 2008 on the campus of Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho will increase our knowledge of saber-toothed mammals through improved communications, better sharing of information among researchers, facilitating cooperative and multidisciplinary studies and advancing our ability to view saber-tooths as dynamic, integrated organisms. Public education goals include methods of utilizing saber-tooths as models for public education in evolutionary processes, extinction, homology and analogy, paleoecology, and geologic time.