Abstract
Extant felids are hyper-carnivorous predators that originated in Asia c. 11 Mya and diversified in 8 distinct lineages, with 41 species surviving to the Recent. These species occupy almost every terrestrial habitat available in the four continental land masses they occupy and exhibit morphological and behavioral specializations to various locomotor styles and hunting modes. Today, distinct felid ensembles inhabit each continent and major biogeographic region. How the differential structuring of these ensembles was generated, and which evolutionary processes shaped these differences across ensembles, are key emerging questions. Using multivariate statistics, we analyzed a large dataset of 31 cranial and 92 postcranial linear variables describing shape and functional proxies of the entire skeleton of extant felids. We statistically demonstrate the existence of nine felid morphotypes at the global scale, whose occurrence is characteristic of different continental or biogeographic ensembles. Phylogenetically explicit analyses show that morphotypes from different felid lineages converged in different continents, but still ensembles remain distinct due to the fact that various morphotypes are missing in several of those ensembles. However, fossil evidence suggests that most of these missing morphotypes were represented by species from those territories that went extinct during the Quaternary. Furthermore, reconstructing the hypothetical felid ensembles before Pleistocene extinctions rendered the continental felid faunas remarkably more similar to each other than they presently are, leaving their remaining, relatively minor differences to outstanding geographic singularities of each continental land mass.
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Data availability and material
Data deposited in the Mendeley repository: https://doi.org/10.17632/fntx8pt8fv.1. Specimens used are stored in the Institutions declared in Material and Methods section.
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Acknowledgments
We want to acknowledge all curators and personal involved in all collections visited (institutions in alphabetical order): Nancy Simmons, Eileen Westwig, Eleanor Hoeger, Brian O'Toole (AMNH); Ned Gilmore (ANSP); Ulyses Pardiñas (CNP); James Aparicio, Julieta Tordoya (CBF); Martín Monteverde (APN); Ricardo Ojeda (CMI); Mauro Lucherini, Estela Luengos Vidal (CGECM); Rubén Barquez, Mónica Díaz (CML); Marcelo Carrera (MC); Daniel Hernández (ZVC-M); Lawrence Heaney, William Stanley (FMNH); David Flores, Valentina Segura, Pablo Teta, Sergio Lucero (MACN); Pablo Perovic, Jorge Samaniego (MCN-UNSa); Víctor Pacheco, Carlos Tello (MUSM); Diego Verzi, Itatí Olivares, Cecilia Morgan (MLP); Damián Romero, Alejandro Dondas, Fernando Scaglia (MMPMa); Enrique González, Yennifer Hernández, José González (MNHN); Norka Rocha (MNK); Don Wilson, Darrin Lunde, Kristofer Helgen, John Ososky; Alfred Gardner, Linda Gordon, Jeremy Jacobs (USNM). Thanks to Per Ericson, Olavi Grönwall and Francisco Prevosti for facilitating photographic records of specimens of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm and National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo respectively. MMM acknowledge Virginia Abdala and Sergio Vizcaíno for their support along her thesis. We thank Lars Werdelin for improving an earlier version of the manuscript and Jessica Fratani for her help in statistical analysis. Thanks to the reviewers and editor for their extremely constructive suggestions. This work was partially supported by CONICET, a Short-Term Visitor Fellowship granted by Smithsonian Institution and a Roosevelt Memorial Award granted by the American Museum of Natural History to MMM. We thank PICT 2015-0708 to MMM and PICT 2015-2389 and PICT 2016-3682 to NPG.
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This work was partially supported by Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, a Short-Term Visitor Fellowship granted by Smithsonian Institution and a Roosevelt Memorial Award granted by the American Museum of Natural History to MMM. We thank Agencia Nacional de Promoción de la Investigación, el Desarrollo Tecnológico y la Innovación, Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (PICT 2015-0708; PICT 2015-2389 and PICT 2016-3682).
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MMM and NPG conceived the ideas and designed methodology and contributed to the shaping and production of the manuscript. MMM measured all specimens, carried out the statistical analysis and prepared figures, tables and Supplementary Information. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.
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Morales, M.M., Giannini, N.P. Pleistocene extinction and geographic singularity explain differences in global felid ensemble structure. Evol Ecol 35, 271–289 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-021-10103-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-021-10103-2