Tools
Tools
Van Valkenburgh, B, Hayward, MW, Ripple, WJ, Meloro, C and Roth, VL (2015) The impact of large terrestrial carnivores on Pleistocene ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA. ISSN 1091-6490
|
Text
PNASwbigFig2.pdf - Accepted Version Download (426kB) | Preview |
Abstract
At very high densities, populations of the largest herbivores, such as elephants, have devastating effects on the environment. What prevented widespread habitat destruction in the Pleistocene, when the ecosystem sustained many species of huge herbivores? We use data on predator–prey body mass relationships to predict the prey size ranges of large extinct mammalian carnivores, which were more diverse and much larger than living species. We then compare these prey size ranges with estimates of young mammoth sizes and show that juvenile mammoths and mastodons were within predicted prey size ranges of many of the Pleistocene carnivores. From this and other fossil evidence we argue that, by limiting population sizes of megaherbivores, large carnivores had a major impact on Pleistocene ecosystems.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | MD Multidisciplinary |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology Q Science > QL Zoology |
| Divisions: | Natural Sciences & Psychology (closed 31 Aug 19) |
| Publisher: | National Academy of Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 28 Oct 2015 10:12 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Sep 2021 13:51 |
| DOI or ID number: | 10.1073/pnas.1502554112 |
| URI: | https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/2258 |
 |
View Item |