DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.11.022
Scopus记录号: 2-s2.0-84903614303
论文题名: The Plio-Pleistocene scimitar-toothed felid genus Homotherium Fabrini, 1890 (Machairodontinae, Homotherini): Diversity, palaeogeography and taxonomic implications
作者: Antón M. ; Salesa M.J. ; Galobart A. ; Tseng Z.J.
刊名: Quaternary Science Reviews
ISSN: 2773791
出版年: 2014
卷: 96 起始页码: 259
结束页码: 268
语种: 英语
英文关键词: Felidae
; Homotherium
; Machairodontinae
; Pleistocene
; Pliocene
Scopus关键词: Geology
; Natural sciences
; Geology
; Natural sciences
; Felidae
; Homotherium
; Machairodontinae
; Pleistocene
; Pliocene
; Salinity measurement
; Salinity measurement
; felid
; fossil record
; Pleistocene
; species diversity
; timescale
; cranium
; morphology
; paleoecology
; paleogeography
; Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary
; spatial distribution
; specimen bank
; taxonomy
; tooth
; Alaska
; Spain
; United States
; Africa
; Eurasia
; North America
; Felidae
; Homotherium
; Homotherium latidens
英文摘要: The systematics of the Plio-Pleistocene scimitar toothed felid Homotherium have remained problematic after more than a century of fossil findings in Eurasia, Africa and the Americas. Ranging in age between around 4 million and 10,000 years, fossils of this genus display considerable variation, but the distribution of that variation has largely failed to fit a consistent pattern that would allow a clear distinction between species, especially in the Eurasiatic record. The study of undescribed mandibular and cranial fossils of Homotherium from Pleistocene sites in Spain and Alaska provides new insights into the morphological variability within this widespread genus. The results of our study and comparison of the new material with the published fossils of Homotherium confirm the difficulty in dividing the sample into clear-cut species. The new mandible from Incarcal (Spain) shows in a more dramatic way than before how the sample from that Spanish site encompasses the range of variability observed in the Villafranchian and Pleistocene Eurasiatic record, while older, possibly Ruscinian fossils of Homotherium from East Europe display less reduced lower premolars and probably correspond to a different species. The Alaskan fossils, on the other hand, add to the variability in mandibular and cranial morphology of the late Pleistocene North American record. We find no evidence to allow a species-level division within the Villafranchian-Pleistocene Homotherium sample from Eurasia, which for now is best classified as a single variable species, Homotherium latidens, but there are indications of evolution within the lineage, such as the presence of a pocketed anterior margin of the mandibular masseteric fossa, a feature found in the younger fossils of middle or late Pleistocene age but consistently absent in older specimens. A comparable pattern is found in the American record, where the same mandibular feature is observed in late Pleistocene fossils, although in that continent the "primitive" features of some older Homotherium fossils of Blancan (Pliocene) age are consistent enough to justify their classification in a separate species, Homotherium ischyrus. Only the finding of more complete cranial fossils of middle and late Pleistocene age will reveal if there are additional morphological features (besides the pocketing of the masseteric fossa) that could one day allow the separation of younger populations from those of Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene age. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. Citation statistics:
资源类型: 期刊论文
标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/60241
Appears in Collections: 过去全球变化的重建
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作者单位: Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, Departamento de Paleobiología, C/José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain; Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, C/Escola Industrial 23, 08201 Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain; American Museum of Natural History, Division of Paleontology, NY, United States
Recommended Citation:
Antón M.,Salesa M.J.,Galobart A.,et al. The Plio-Pleistocene scimitar-toothed felid genus Homotherium Fabrini, 1890 (Machairodontinae, Homotherini): Diversity, palaeogeography and taxonomic implications[J]. Quaternary Science Reviews,2014-01-01,96