Panthera onca Linnaeus, 1758 dentalites in megafauna bone remains from the Late Pleistocene of the Brazilian Intertropical Region

Dentalites are important for inferring past ecological interactions, especially predator-prey relationships and scavenging of carcasses by different taxa. In this paper, we discuss dentalites (Nihilichnus nihilicus) on bones of the macraucheniid Xenorhinotherium bahiense, the megalonychid giant sloth Ahytherium aureum, and the jaguar Panthera onca, possibly produced by a large felid such as the jaguar, as a means to explore predator-prey dynamics and interspecific interactions. We propose a regression between body mass and canine area which allowed us to infer that the body mass of these jaguars in the Pleistocene was between 76.4–142.1 kg. These estimates align with the known sizes of P. onca, supporting its identification as the trace maker described in this study. The body masses are similar to those of both fossil and extant individuals of an adult Panthera onca and show that potential prey included two extinct species of the megafauna X. bahiense and A. aureum. The isotopic habitat (δ13C) of these jaguars during the Late Pleistocene (44 ky to 11 ky) varied between seasonal dry forests and an ecotone between arboreal and open savanna in the Brazilian Intertropical Region (BIR).