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Where’s dinner? Variation in carnivoran distributional responses to the mid-Vallesian faunal turnover

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Abstract

The Catalan locality of Can Llobateres 1 (early Vallesian, MN9) shows a remarkably rich diversity just prior to the mid-Vallesian crisis, including 23 species of Carnivora. Similarity maps using the Raup-Crick index and covering the Middle to Late Miocene (16–5.3 Ma) show that the origin of this carnivoran chronofauna lies to the north of the Iberian Peninsula, gradually making its way south. The chronofauna built up through migrations during the Aragonian, but shows a major influx during the early Vallesian, leading to a biodiversity hotspot. At the end of MN9, the mid-Vallesian turnover, the chronofauna collapses. This is mainly because of the extinction of parts of the fauna, and the retraction of some species to the north, disappearing from Spain. Thus, the rich fauna is an amalgamation of persisting older elements, northern elements having a brief temporary presence and new elements coming in. All these were supported by the unique rich ecosystem of the Vallès-Penedès Basin during the early Vallesian.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the teams of the NOW database, its contributors and coordinators, as well as David Harper and Øyvind Hammer for their help with the analyses, together with our colleagues Salvador Moyà Solà and David M. Alba. We express gratitude to Rutger van den Hoek Ostende, who assisted in making Fig. 2, and Marianne Dillen, Luc Rongen, Ruud van Hirtum and Adwin van Gerven for their overall support and encouragement. The comments provided by Juan Abella and Michael Morlo as reviewers helped improve not only our paper, but also provided an update for the NOW database, for both of which we are thankful.

Funding

This article is part of the R+D+I project PID2020-117289GB-I00, funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033/), and has also been supported by the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2001 SGR 00620) and the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA Programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Naturalis Biodiversity Center, PO Box 9517, 2300, RA, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Paulina A. Madern, Yanell Braumuller, Leonie Bergwerff, Naomi Janssen, Peter C. van Welzen & Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende

  2. Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, Campus de la UAB s/n, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

    Paulina A. Madern, Josep Maria Robles & Isaac Casanovas-Vilar

  3. Independent researcher, Istanbul, Turkey

    Aslı Ceren Mavikurt

  4. Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey

    Serdar Mayda

  5. Departamento Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Cantalapiedra

  6. Institute of Biology Leiden, University of Leiden, PO Box 9504, 2300, RA, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Peter C. van Welzen

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  1. Paulina A. Madern
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Madern, P.A., Braumuller, Y., Mavikurt, A.C. et al. Where’s dinner? Variation in carnivoran distributional responses to the mid-Vallesian faunal turnover. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 104, 181–190 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-023-00588-w

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