IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Kuhn, B.F.; Hartstone-Rose, A.; Lacruz, R.S.; Herries, A.I.R.; Werdelin, L.; Bamford, M.K.; Berger, L.R. | |
| The carnivore guild circa 1.98 million years: biodiversity and implications for the palaeoenvironment at Malapa, South Africa | |
| 2016 Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments (96): 611-616 | |
The Malapa fossil assemblage was likely accumulated as a result of a death trap. Given this, the carnivoran species found there must have lived in proximity, close proximity for the smaller species, to the site, offering the possibility of expanding our interpretation of the habitats available to _Australopithecus sediba_ via pinpoint palaeoenvironmental interpretation. To date, the identified carnivorans are the most abundant identified non-hominin taxa at Malapa, and given their territorial behaviour, are important when interpreting the palaeoecology of the site. The extinct false saber-tooth felid (_Dinofelis barlowi_) suggests that the presence of closed environments and the ancestral form of modern water mongoose (_Atilax mesotes_) indicates the presence of water in the vicinity. Canids generally support the presence of open habitats. The first appearance in the fossil record of _Vulpes skinneri_ and _Felis nigripes_ indicates the presence of drier open grassland/scrub. The Malapa carnivorans support widespread shifts in carnivore turnover circa 2.0Ma in Africa and suggest, together with other lines of evidence, the occurrence of a regional transitioning environment during the time of Au. sediba |
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