All Your Carcass Are Belong in Carnivore Belly – #365papers – 2017 – 138

#365papers for May 18, 2017

Chichkoyan, Figueirido, Belinchon, Lanata, Moigne, Martinez-Navarro, 2017, Direct evidence of megamammal-carnivore interaction decoded from bone marks in historical fossil collections from the Pampean region: PeerJ 5:e3117; DOI 10.7717/peerj.3117

What’s it about?

Trace fossils (scratches, pits, fractures) on the fossils large mammalian herbivores from the Pampean region of Argentina are used to infer that carnivores completely utilized the carcasses of their prey.

Why does it matter?

It’s useful to understand how carnivores made use of the large mammalian herbivores (horses, bison, mammoths, or in the case of the Pampean region, toxodonts and mylodonts) that once dominated the landscape but are now extinct.

Why did I read this?

I have a deep interest in the Toxodontidae and the extinction of megamammals.