Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction to Carnivora
- 2 Phylogeny of the Carnivora and Carnivoramorpha, and the use of the fossil record to enhance understanding of evolutionary transformations
- 3 Phylogeny of the Viverridae and ‘Viverrid-like’ feliforms
- 4 Molecular and morphological evidence for Ailuridae and a review of its genera
- 5 The influence of character correlations on phylogenetic analyses: a case study of the carnivoran cranium
- 6 What's the difference? A multiphasic allometric analysis of fossil and living lions
- 7 Evolution in Carnivora: identifying a morphological bias
- 8 The biogeography of carnivore ecomorphology
- 9 Comparative ecomorphology and biogeography of Herpestidae and Viverridae (Carnivora) in Africa and Asia
- 10 Ecomorphological analysis of carnivore guilds in the Eocene through Miocene of Laurasia
- 11 Ecomorphology of North American Eocene carnivores: evidence for competition between Carnivorans and Creodonts
- 12 Morphometric analysis of cranial morphology in pinnipeds (Mammalia, Carnivora): convergence, ecology, ontogeny, and dimorphism
- 13 Tiptoeing through the trophics: geographic variation in carnivoran locomotor ecomorphology in relation to environment
- 14 Interpreting sabretooth cat (Carnivora; Felidae; Machairodontinae) postcranial morphology in light of scaling patterns in felids
- 15 Cranial mechanics of mammalian carnivores: recent advances using a finite element approach
- Index
- Plates
- References
13 - Tiptoeing through the trophics: geographic variation in carnivoran locomotor ecomorphology in relation to environment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction to Carnivora
- 2 Phylogeny of the Carnivora and Carnivoramorpha, and the use of the fossil record to enhance understanding of evolutionary transformations
- 3 Phylogeny of the Viverridae and ‘Viverrid-like’ feliforms
- 4 Molecular and morphological evidence for Ailuridae and a review of its genera
- 5 The influence of character correlations on phylogenetic analyses: a case study of the carnivoran cranium
- 6 What's the difference? A multiphasic allometric analysis of fossil and living lions
- 7 Evolution in Carnivora: identifying a morphological bias
- 8 The biogeography of carnivore ecomorphology
- 9 Comparative ecomorphology and biogeography of Herpestidae and Viverridae (Carnivora) in Africa and Asia
- 10 Ecomorphological analysis of carnivore guilds in the Eocene through Miocene of Laurasia
- 11 Ecomorphology of North American Eocene carnivores: evidence for competition between Carnivorans and Creodonts
- 12 Morphometric analysis of cranial morphology in pinnipeds (Mammalia, Carnivora): convergence, ecology, ontogeny, and dimorphism
- 13 Tiptoeing through the trophics: geographic variation in carnivoran locomotor ecomorphology in relation to environment
- 14 Interpreting sabretooth cat (Carnivora; Felidae; Machairodontinae) postcranial morphology in light of scaling patterns in felids
- 15 Cranial mechanics of mammalian carnivores: recent advances using a finite element approach
- Index
- Plates
- References
Summary
Introduction
How do communities and species respond to environmental change? For the palaeontologist, the answer to this question is key to addressing its converse: how can we measure palaeoenvironmental change from fossil species and assemblages? This paper examines the association between community-level carnivoran locomotor morphology and climatic parameters to determine whether the average locomotor habits of carnivoran communities are associated closely enough with vegetation cover, topography, and related climatic factors to be used as an independent estimator of palaeoenvironment.
Community-level morphology has the potential to be a powerful indicator of climate. When a particular morphological feature mediates between an organism and its environment – the structure of the foot in relation to the substrate, for example – the average morphology of that feature can be expected to follow whatever environmental gradient is most closely associated with its function (Valverde, 1964; Fortelius et al., 2002). Such a distribution will arise by the effects of climate on individual species, either through local adaptation (evolution by natural selection), by geographic range sorting (migration to more palatable regions), by extinction (Hughes, 2000; Lister, 2004; Davis et al., 2005), or by the interaction of adaptation and range changes (Holt, 2003). All three kinds of species-level change will affect the community's composition and, therefore, the mean morphology of the community. The cumulative effect of climate on the community's mean morphology is likely to be more predictable than the effect on any one species.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Carnivoran EvolutionNew Views on Phylogeny, Form and Function, pp. 374 - 410Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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