Saber-toothed cats were armed with formidable weapons. They evolved a number of highly derived morphological features, most notably a pair of extremely long upper canines, which makes them unique within the felid family. Although the sabertooth character evolved several times among carnivorous mammals, sabertooth clades mostly had disjunctive occurrences both in space and time, and no sabertooth is alive today. We studied the rates of phenotypic and taxonomic diversification in the mandible of sabertooths, as compared to the rates calculated for both extinct and extant conical toothed cats. We found that the mandible's shape and physical properties in sabertooth clades evolved at distinctly higher rates than the rest of the felid tree. In addition, sabertooths had similar speciation rate to conical toothed cats, but statistically higher extinction rate. The wealth of morphological specializations required to be a sabertooth, and their tendency to focus on large-sized species as prey, was likely responsible for such high extinction rate, and for the peculiar, disjunctive patterns of sabertooth Glade occurrence in the fossil record.

Evolution of the sabertooth mandible: A deadly ecomorphological specialization / Piras, P; Silvestro, D; Carotenuto, F; Castiglione, S; Kotsakis, A; Maiorino, L; Melchionna, M; Mondanaro, A; Sansalone, G; Serio, C; Vero, Va; Raia, P. - In: PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY. - ISSN 0031-0182. - 496:(2018), pp. 166-174. [10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.01.034]

Evolution of the sabertooth mandible: A deadly ecomorphological specialization

Sansalone G;
2018

Abstract

Saber-toothed cats were armed with formidable weapons. They evolved a number of highly derived morphological features, most notably a pair of extremely long upper canines, which makes them unique within the felid family. Although the sabertooth character evolved several times among carnivorous mammals, sabertooth clades mostly had disjunctive occurrences both in space and time, and no sabertooth is alive today. We studied the rates of phenotypic and taxonomic diversification in the mandible of sabertooths, as compared to the rates calculated for both extinct and extant conical toothed cats. We found that the mandible's shape and physical properties in sabertooth clades evolved at distinctly higher rates than the rest of the felid tree. In addition, sabertooths had similar speciation rate to conical toothed cats, but statistically higher extinction rate. The wealth of morphological specializations required to be a sabertooth, and their tendency to focus on large-sized species as prey, was likely responsible for such high extinction rate, and for the peculiar, disjunctive patterns of sabertooth Glade occurrence in the fossil record.
2018
496
166
174
Evolution of the sabertooth mandible: A deadly ecomorphological specialization / Piras, P; Silvestro, D; Carotenuto, F; Castiglione, S; Kotsakis, A; Maiorino, L; Melchionna, M; Mondanaro, A; Sansalone, G; Serio, C; Vero, Va; Raia, P. - In: PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY. - ISSN 0031-0182. - 496:(2018), pp. 166-174. [10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.01.034]
Piras, P; Silvestro, D; Carotenuto, F; Castiglione, S; Kotsakis, A; Maiorino, L; Melchionna, M; Mondanaro, A; Sansalone, G; Serio, C; Vero, Va; Raia, ...espandi
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.
Pubblicazioni consigliate

Licenza Creative Commons
I metadati presenti in IRIS UNIMORE sono rilasciati con licenza Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal, mentre i file delle pubblicazioni sono rilasciati con licenza Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale (CC BY 4.0), salvo diversa indicazione.
In caso di violazione di copyright, contattare Supporto Iris

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11380/1318369
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 22
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 21
social impact