2023-11-30 12:47:21
In an article published in the magazine Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecologyscientists from the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH) suggest that carrion of large herbivores, a resource previously abundant and affordable for hominidsbecame scarcer at the end of Lower Pleistocene, due to changes in the Iberian fauna.
Hominids arrived in the Iberian Peninsula 1.4 million years ago, where they found a wide variety of food resources, including the carcasses of large herbivores partially consumed by other predators.
Hominids arrived in the Iberian Peninsula 1.4 million years agowhere they found a wide variety of food resourcesamong them, a great abundance of carcasses of large herbivores partially consumed by a diversity of predators, among which two species of saber-toothed tigers stood out (Homotherium hiding y Megantereon whitei).
In these ecosystems, they also found a powerful rivalthe hyena gigante (Pachycrocuta brevirostris).
However, as the authors—including Ana Mateos and Jesús Rodríguez, from CENIEH—demonstrated in a previous jobthe richness of food and the diversity of the ecosystems of that period made possible the coexistence of hominids and hyenas giants competing for carrion.
But about a million years ago there were important climate changes that restructured the ecosystems of all of Europe. In the Iberian Peninsula, the fauna of large mammals suffered the extinction of several species, including the giant hyena and one of the saber-toothed tigers (Megantereon whitei), which led to less disposal of carrion.
Virtual simulations
The researchers have used a computational model that allows experiments to be carried out that start he hyena behavior y hominids competing for carrion in a virtual environment.
Giant hyenas and hominids could coexist, competing for carrion before the extinction of the saber-toothed tiger and other predators; After their disappearance, carrion became scarcer
Each experiment represents a different ecological scenariodefined by the species of predators present, the productivity of the ecosystem and the rivalry for carrion with other species such as vultures or small carnivores.
“Giant hyenas and hominids could coexist competing for carrion before the extinction of the saber-toothed tiger. Megantereon and other predators, such as wild dogs and pumas. However, after the disappearance of these predators, the carrion became scarcer. “This coincides with the extinction of the giant hyena,” he explains. Ana Mateos.
According to the results of these analyses, among the key factors that determined these changes in the availability of carrion would be the low productivity of ecosystems during the very cold episodes of that perioda high competition with other scavengers other than the giant hyena and the probable social behavior of the other large saber-toothed tiger (H. latidens).
Greater flexibility in obtaining food would have allowed hominids to survive and adapt to the new prevailing ecological conditions.
Jesús Rodríguez, co-author
Unlike hyenas, which would depend exclusively on the carcasses of large herbivores for food, hominids they would have a trophic behavior a lot more flexiblewhich can also explode plant resources such as fruits, berries, or roots, hunt small animals, and even kill larger animals.
“This greater flexibility to obtain food would have allowed them to survive and adapt to the new ecological conditions prevailing after the changes in climate and fauna a million years ago,” he explains. Jesus Rodriguez.
In addition to CENIEH, Ericson Hoelzchen, a scientist at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), at the University of Trier (Cognitive Social Simulation Lab), participated in this article within the framework of the TROPHIc Project.
Rights: Creative Commons.
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