1994/06/01 by Fritz Hertel · 151 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Avian ecology and behavior #Beak #Biology #Convergent evolution #Early Pleistocene #Ecological niche #Ecology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Fauna #Faunal assemblage #Geography #Guild #Habitat #Paleontology #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Phylogenetic tree #Pleistocene #Sympatric speciation #Vulture
paper · doi:10.2307/1939431
published in Ecology 75(4), 1074-1084 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 1994/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Vultures comprise two geographically isolated and taxonomically distinct groups, Old World accipitrids and New World vulturids, and provide a classic case of convergent evolution. In both regions, several species of vultures often feed together in large numbers on carcasses. Behavioral studies of East African and Amazonian vultures have documented parallels in apparent ecological separation within this guild of specialized scavengers. Here morphological differences in skull, beak, and manibular dimensions are compared among sympatric vultures in East Africa, South Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Amazonia, and the Pleistocene Rancho La Brea deposits in California. A discriminant function analysis based on morphological indices separates three basic feeding types: rippers, gulpers, and scrappers. Vultures of the three feeding types are present in both Pleistocene and Recent assemblages and show a similar distribution of body sizes into three size classes, suggesting that competition has favored similar pathways of ecological separation. This is true even when phylogenetic differences among some of the assemblages are partially accounted for. Comparisons between the fossil and extant New World vultures indicate that more specialized species were prone to extinction and that there has been a reduction in body size since the Pleistocene.