FOSSILS OF BEARS AND WOLVES 15,000 YEARS AGO IN AN UNDERWATER CAVERN
It was in Mexico and shows that at some point fauna of South America moved
north. Two researchers from CONICET identified the remains.
Tuesday May 21, 2019
Arctotherium and Protocyon genres are respectively bears and wolves that
lived in South America and became extinct 10,000 years ago. His
predecessors had emerged in North long before America came to this part of
the world during the phenomenon known as the Great American Biotic
Interchange (CIBA), migration of different species of a continental
hemisphere to the other through the Isthmus of Panama when both masses of
land they were definitely together, about three million years ago.
Among other animals, this part of the world arrived gigantic carnivores who
settled smoothly and even reached even larger dimensions because here they
found many herbivores in the absence of predators. What until now was
thought that once established in the south, had not returned to move
anymore, but the recent discovery in Mexico of fossil remains dated to
between 12 and 38 thousand years old is proof that Yes they did it. The
novelty has just been published in the scientific journal Biology Letters.
"What is the only possible explanation for this occurrence?" Asks Leopoldo
Soibelzon, CONICET researcher at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the
National University of La Plata (FCNyM, UNLP) and one of the study's
authors, and continues: "we believe that at some point the environmental
conditions in Central America and southern North America began to change
and became favorable for some of these animal forms continent crossed
again. That must have happened a few thousand years before dying ".
Ecological change the speaker expert would be the passage of a tropical
savanna grassland or for that region of the planet. "This would confirm the
hypothesis of re-entry of wildlife that historically has been proposed
based on the distribution of current carnivores," says Francisco Prevosti,
CONICET researcher and director of the Regional Center for Scientific
Research and Technology Transfer La Rioja (CRILAR, CONICET - Gob La Rioja
UNLAR- SEGEMAR- UNCA), convened to work on identifying the remains for the
canid, ie, the wolf..
Professional divers found and collected all materials. PHOTOS: Courtesy
researchers
"The idea is that these bloodlines came to South America evolved creating
new genres and only some migrated to the center. At that time he was taking
the last glacial period -in what is known as Pleistocene tardío- during
which sea level fell as much and allowed open vegetation environments will
advance on closed as forests or forests, and this may have facilitated the
passage of the species investigated, "added the specialist.
The data on environmental conditions is central because "generally the
fossil record of Central and largely northern South America is incomplete,
especially in key periods of CIBA like this was," says Prevosti while
Soibelzon, dedicated to the study of big bears, adds: "in this case the
materials are preserved so amazing because they were in a very intricate
underwater cavern that was favorable for conservation because there was no
carrion animals near or water movement that could erode or move them" .
Argentine professionals ensure that identification was also easy because
they were very complete.
Skulls, jaws and teeth of various specimens are the remains found
fortuitously by professional divers who were exploring Black Hole, a system
of underground caves located north of the Yucatan Peninsula. Arctotherium
bear species came to weigh a ton and measuring 4 meters and half being
upright, while dogs or wolves belonging to the genus Protocyon were around
25 kilos. Mismatch-finding paleontólogos- shows that future research in
these areas will likely change what today is known about the biogeographic
history of fossil mammals.
Source: Conicet
north. Two researchers from CONICET identified the remains.
Tuesday May 21, 2019
Arctotherium and Protocyon genres are respectively bears and wolves that
lived in South America and became extinct 10,000 years ago. His
predecessors had emerged in North long before America came to this part of
the world during the phenomenon known as the Great American Biotic
Interchange (CIBA), migration of different species of a continental
hemisphere to the other through the Isthmus of Panama when both masses of
land they were definitely together, about three million years ago.
Among other animals, this part of the world arrived gigantic carnivores who
settled smoothly and even reached even larger dimensions because here they
found many herbivores in the absence of predators. What until now was
thought that once established in the south, had not returned to move
anymore, but the recent discovery in Mexico of fossil remains dated to
between 12 and 38 thousand years old is proof that Yes they did it. The
novelty has just been published in the scientific journal Biology Letters.
"What is the only possible explanation for this occurrence?" Asks Leopoldo
Soibelzon, CONICET researcher at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the
National University of La Plata (FCNyM, UNLP) and one of the study's
authors, and continues: "we believe that at some point the environmental
conditions in Central America and southern North America began to change
and became favorable for some of these animal forms continent crossed
again. That must have happened a few thousand years before dying ".
Ecological change the speaker expert would be the passage of a tropical
savanna grassland or for that region of the planet. "This would confirm the
hypothesis of re-entry of wildlife that historically has been proposed
based on the distribution of current carnivores," says Francisco Prevosti,
CONICET researcher and director of the Regional Center for Scientific
Research and Technology Transfer La Rioja (CRILAR, CONICET - Gob La Rioja
UNLAR- SEGEMAR- UNCA), convened to work on identifying the remains for the
canid, ie, the wolf..
Professional divers found and collected all materials. PHOTOS: Courtesy
researchers
"The idea is that these bloodlines came to South America evolved creating
new genres and only some migrated to the center. At that time he was taking
the last glacial period -in what is known as Pleistocene tardío- during
which sea level fell as much and allowed open vegetation environments will
advance on closed as forests or forests, and this may have facilitated the
passage of the species investigated, "added the specialist.
The data on environmental conditions is central because "generally the
fossil record of Central and largely northern South America is incomplete,
especially in key periods of CIBA like this was," says Prevosti while
Soibelzon, dedicated to the study of big bears, adds: "in this case the
materials are preserved so amazing because they were in a very intricate
underwater cavern that was favorable for conservation because there was no
carrion animals near or water movement that could erode or move them" .
Argentine professionals ensure that identification was also easy because
they were very complete.
Skulls, jaws and teeth of various specimens are the remains found
fortuitously by professional divers who were exploring Black Hole, a system
of underground caves located north of the Yucatan Peninsula. Arctotherium
bear species came to weigh a ton and measuring 4 meters and half being
upright, while dogs or wolves belonging to the genus Protocyon were around
25 kilos. Mismatch-finding paleontólogos- shows that future research in
these areas will likely change what today is known about the biogeographic
history of fossil mammals.
Source: Conicet