Assessing niche conservatism using a multiproxy approach: dietary ecology of extinct and extant spotted hyenas

A central premise of bioclimatic envelope modeling is the assumption of niche conservatism. Whereas such assumptions are testable in modern populations, it is unclear if niche conservatism holds over deeper time spans and over very large geographic ranges. Hyaenids occupied a diversity of ecological niches over time and space, and until the end-Pleistocene they occurred in Europe and most of Asia, with Asian populations of Crocuta suggested as being genetically distinct from their closest living extant relatives. Further, little is known regarding if and how the dietary ecology of extinct populations of Crocuta differed from their extant African counterparts. Here, we use a multi-proxy approach to assess an assumption of conserved dietary ecology in late Pleistocene and extant Chinese spotted hyenas via finite element analysis, dental microwear texture analysis, and a novel dental macrowear method here proposed. Results from finite element simulations of the masticatory apparatus of ...

生物气候信封模型（bioclimatic envelope modeling）的核心前提是生态位保守性（niche conservatism）这一假设。尽管此类假设可在现代种群中得到检验，但目前尚不清楚生态位保守性是否适用于更深的时间尺度以及超大地理分布范围。鬣狗科动物（hyaenids）在时间与空间维度上占据了多样的生态位，直至更新世末期，它们曾分布于欧洲与亚洲大部分区域，有研究表明亚洲斑鬣狗属（Crocuta）种群与其现存最近的现生近缘类群存在遗传分化。此外，目前对灭绝斑鬣狗种群的饮食生态是否、以及如何区别于其现生非洲同类，仍知之甚少。本研究采用多指标（multi-proxy）方法，通过有限元分析（finite element analysis）、牙齿微磨耗纹理分析（dental microwear texture analysis）以及本文提出的新型牙齿大磨耗分析法，评估晚更新世与现生中国斑鬣狗的饮食生态保守性假设。有限元模拟的咀嚼装置（masticatory apparatus）结果显示……