HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by MUÑOZ-DURÁN, J. Articles by VAN VALKENBURGH, B. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

THE RANCHOLABREAN RECORD OF CARNIVORA: TAPHONOMIC EFFECT OF BODY SIZE, HABITAT BREADTH, AND THE PRESERVATION POTENTIAL OF CAVES

¹ Instituto de Biología, Universidad de Antioquia, Calle 67 No. 53-108, Oficina 7-108, Medellín, Colombia; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, 621 Charles E. Young Dr. South, Box 951606, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA joao{at}matematicas.udea.edu.co

This paper explores the taphonomic effect that differences in body size and habitat breadth have on the end-Rancholabrean fossil record of carnivoran species. The preservation and recovery potential of carnivoran fossils in cave and noncave deposits are also compared. Identifying the nature and assessing the effect of taphonomic biases are among the preliminary steps in deciding the kind of evolutionary and paleoecological questions that can be addressed with the available fossil information. Few studies have examined taphonomic biases that affect the fossil record of mammals, and most of these have focused on herbivores.

Results suggest that differences in habitat breadth of extant carnivorans are not associated with differences in frequencies of their fossil remains. There is a significant, positive relationship between body size and frequency of identified fossil specimens in noncave deposits. Outside of caves, the frequency of identified fossil specimens of extant, small carnivorans is significantly less than that of large ones. Results indicate also that the species richness of extant, small carnivorans is underrepresented relative to that of larger carnivorans, especially in the end-Rancholabrean fossil record derived from noncave localities. No significant differences in the frequency of fossil remains of species that differed in body size were found within caves.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. H. Liow, M. Fortelius, E. Bingham, K. Lintulaakso, H. Mannila, L. Flynn, and N. Chr. Stenseth Higher origination and extinction rates in larger mammals PNAS, April 22, 2008; 105(16): 6097 - 6102. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]