1993/07/23 by Blaire VanValkenburgh, Fritz Hertel · 9 citations
Environmental Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Wildlife Ecology and Conservation #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Extant taxon #Predation #Pleistocene #Carnivore #Interspecific competition #Extinct species #Early Pleistocene #Predator #Ecology #Biology #Geography #Zoology #Paleontology #Evolutionary biology
paper · doi:10.1126/science.261.5120.456
openalex publication_date 1993/07/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
One million to two million years ago, most of today's large, predatory mammals coexisted with larger extinct species, such as saber-toothed cats and giant running bears. Comparisons of tooth fracture frequencies from modern and Pleistocene carnivores imply that predator-prey dynamics and interspecific interactions must have been substantially different 36,000 to 10,000 years ago. Tooth fracture frequencies of four Rancho La Brea species-dire wolf, coyote, saber-toothed cat, and American lion-were about three times that of extant carnivores. Consequently, these findings suggest that these species utilized carcasses more fully and likely competed more intensely for food than presentday large carnivores.