کد مقاله کد نشریه سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی نسخه تمام متن
1044371 1484285 2008 8 صفحه PDF دانلود رایگان
عنوان انگلیسی مقاله ISI
Presence of Hippidion at two sites of western Argentina: Diet composition and contribution to the study of the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna
موضوعات مرتبط
مهندسی و علوم پایه علوم زمین و سیارات زمین شناسی
پیش نمایش صفحه اول مقاله
Presence of Hippidion at two sites of western Argentina: Diet composition and contribution to the study of the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna
چکیده انگلیسی

The composition of Hippidion diet, and possible changes that could relate to its extinction, were evaluated in the Argentinean-Chilean Central Andes, a Neotropical environment characterized by arid to semiarid conditions (Andean hot and cold deserts). Microhistological analyses were made on feces of Hippidion found at Los Morrillos (31°43′S–68°42′W, 3000 m a.s.l.) and Gruta del Indio (34°35′S, 68°22′W, 660 m a.s.l.). At Gruta del Indio the diet of Hippidion was based mainly on woody species. At Los Morrillos, it was based on herbaceous species.This flexibility in diet composition could be a relative adaptive advantage allowing a longer permanence of this species in comparison to others recorded in the region (such as Megatherium and Mylodon). Nevertheless, this advantage was not enough to guarantee its survival during the Holocene. Extinction could have been affected by diverse agents, such as growing aridification of the area, increasing competition with other species (mainly Lama guanicoe), and human presence, along with a relatively low population density (as expected from the limited presence of Hippidion at the archaeological and palaeontological sites of South America. At Gruta del Indio significant changes in the diet of Hippidion corresponding to different intervals of the period 31,000–9000 14C BP are not evident. Given this evidence for similar diets for Hippidion throughout the late Quaternary, other factors need to be considered to explain the extinction of this horse.

ناشر
Database: Elsevier - ScienceDirect (ساینس دایرکت)
Journal: Quaternary International - Volume 180, Issue 1, March 2008, Pages 22–29
نویسندگان
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