Homogenisation of carnivorous mammal ensembles caused by global range reductions of large-bodied hypercarnivores during the late Quaternary

Carnivorous mammals play crucial roles in ecosystems by
influencing prey densities and behaviour, and recycling carrion. Yet,
the influence of carnivores on global ecosystems has been affected by
extinctions and range contractions throughout the Late Pleistocene and
Holocene (~130 000 years ago to the current). Large-bodied mammals
were particularly affected, but how dietary strategies influenced
species’ susceptibility to geographic range reductions remains
unknown. We investigated 1) the importance of dietary strategies in
explaining range reductions of carnivorous mammals (≥5% vertebrate
meat consumption), and 2) differences in functional diversity of
continental carnivore ensembles by comparing current, known ranges to
current, expected ranges under a present-natural counterfactual
scenario. The present-natural counterfactual estimates current mammal
ranges had modern humans not expanded out of Africa during the Late
Pleistocene and were not a main driver of extinctions and range
co...