Abstract
Fast-running, long-legged pursuit carnivores are familiar members of the present-day ecosystem, and it has been assumed that extinct large predators took similar ecomorphological roles (i.e., were “wolf avatars”) in past faunas. While these fossil taxa may also have been meat-specialists, we present evidence from limb morphology to show that there was no modern type of pursuit predator until the latest Tertiary. In contrast, ungulates evolved longer legs similar to those of present-day cursorial taxa by the middle Tertiary, some 20 million years earlier. These data suggest the need for the reevaluation of many classical evolutionary stories, not only about assignation of fossil taxa to a wolf-like mode of predatory behavior, but also to issues such as the coevolution of long legs and fast running speeds between predator and prey, and even the implicit assumption that cursorial morphologies are primarily an adaptation for speed. We conclude that evolutionary change in ungulate limb morphologies represents an adaptation to decrease transport costs in association with Tertiary climatic changes and that the present-day predation mode of long distance pursuit is a Plio-Pleistocene phenomenon, related to the development of colder and more arid climates.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literature cited
Bakker, R. T. (1983). The deer flees, the wolf pursues: Incongruences in predator-prey coevolution. In Futuyma, D. I., and Slatkin, M. (eds.),Coevolution, Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA, pp. 350–382.
Berta, A. (1981). The Plio-Pleistocene hyaenaChasmaporthetes ossifragus from Florida.J. Vert. Paleont. 1 341–356.
Bertram, B. C. R. (1979). Serengeti predators and their social systems. In Sinclair, A. R. E., and Norton-Griffiths, M. (eds.),Serengeti: Dynamics of an Ecosystem, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 221–248.
Bertram, J. E. A., and Biewener, A. A. (1990). Differential scaling of the long bones in the terrestrial Carnivora and other mammals.J. Morphol. 20 157–169.
Chappell, R. (1989). Fitting bent lines to data, with application to allometry.J. Theor. Biol. 138 235–256.
Dawkins, R., and Krebs, J. R. (1979). Arms races between and within species.Proc. R. Soc. Lond. Biol. Sci. 205 489–511.
Duncan, P., Foose, T. J., Gordon, I. J., Gakahu, C. G., and Lloyd, M. (1990). Comparative nutrient extraction by grazing bovids and equids: A test of the nutritional model of equid/bovid competition and coexistence.Oecologia 84 411–418.
Ewer, R. F. (1973).The Carnivores, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Fancy, S. G., and White, R. G. (1985). Incremental costs of activity. In Hudson, R. J., and White, R. G. (eds.)Bioenergetics of Wild Herbivores, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 143–159.
Felsenstein, J. (1985). Phylogenies and the comparative method.Am. Nat. 125 1–15.
Gambaryan, P. P. (1974).How Mammals Run, Halstead Press, New York.
Garland, T., Jr. (1983a). Scaling the ecological cost of transport to body mass in terrestrial mammals.Am. Nat. 121 571–587.
Garland, T., Jr. (1983b). Scaling maximum running speed and body mass in terrestrial animals.J. Zool. Lond. 199 157–170.
Garland, T., Jr., and Janis, C. M. (1993). Does metatarsal/femur ratio predict maximal running speed in cursorial mammals?J. Zool. Lond. 229 133–151.
Gittleman, J. L. (1989). Carnivore group living: Comparative trends. In Gittleman, J. L. (ed.),Carnivore Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution, Comstock, Ithaca, NY, pp. 183–207.
Gittleman, J. L., and Harvey, P. H. (1982). Carnivore home-range size, metabolic needs and ecology.Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 10 57–63.
Harestad, A. S., and Bunnell, F. L. (1979). Home range and body weight—a re-evaluation.Ecology 60 389–403.
Harvey, P. H., and Pagel, M. D. (1991).The Comparative Method in Evolutionary Biology, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Heglund, N. C., Taylor, C. R., and McMahon, T. A. (1974). Scaling stride frequency to gait and animal size: mice to horses.Science 186 1112–1113.
Hildebrand, M. (1952). An analysis of body proportions in the Canidae.Am. J. Anat. 90 217–256.
Hildebrand, M. (1954). Comparative morphology of the body skeleton of the recent Canidae.Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool. Sci. 52 399–470.
Hildebrand, M. (1959). Motions of the running cheetah and horse.J. Mammal. 40 481–495.
Hildebrand, M. (1974).The Analysis of Vertebrate Structure, John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Hobbs, N. T., and Swift, D. N. (1988). Grazing in herds: when are nutritional benefits realized?Am. Nat. 131 760–764.
Howell, A. B. (1944).Speed in Animals, Hafner, New York.
Janis, C. M. (1994). Do legs support the arms race in mammalian predator/prey relationships? In Horner, J. R., and Ellis, L. (eds.),Vertebrate Behavior as Derived from the Fossil Record, Columbia University Press, New York (in press).
Jarman, P. J. (1974). The social organisation of antelope in relation to their ecology.Behaviour 48 215–267.
Jarman, P. J., and Jarman, M. V. (1979). The dynamics of ungulate social organization. In Sinclair, A. R. E., and Norton-Griffiths, M. (eds.),Serengeti: Dynamics of an Ecosystem, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 185–220.
Kitts, D. B. (1956). AmericanHyracotherium (Perissodactyla, Mammalia).Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 110 1–60.
Klein, D. R., Meldgaard, M., and Fancy, S. G. (1987). Factors determining leg length inRangifer tarandus.J. Mammal. 68 642–655.
Kruuk, H. (1972).The Spotted Hyena, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Kruuk, H. (1975). Functional aspects of social hunting by carnivores. In Baerends, C., Beer, C., and Manning, A. (eds.),Function and Evolution in Behaviour, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 119–141.
Kurtén, B. (1971).The Age of Mammals, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London.
Lamprecht, J. (1978). The relationship between food competition and foraging group size in some larger carnivores. A hypothesis.Z. Tierpsychol. 22 337–343.
Lamprecht, J. (1981). The function of social hunting in larger terrestrial carnivores.Mammal Rev. 11 169–179.
LeSouef, A. S., and Burrell, H. (1926).The Wild Mammals of Australasia, George C. Harrap, London.
Lindstedt, S. L., Hokanson, J. F., Wells, D. J., Swain, S. D., Hoppeler, H., and Navarro, V. (1991). Running energetics in the pronghorn antelope.Nature 353 748–750.
MacDonald, D. W. (1983). The ecology of carnivore social behaviour.Nature 301 379–384.
Marshall, L. G. (1978). Evolution of the Borhyaenidae, extinct South American predaceous marsupials.Univ. Calif. Publ. Geol. Sci. 117 1–89.
Martin, L. B. (1980). Functional morphology and the evolution of cats.Trans. Neb. Acad. Sci. 7 141–154.
Martin, L. B. (1985). Tertiary extinction cycles and the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary.Institute for Tertiary Studies (TER-QUA) Symposium Series 1 33–40.
Martin, L. B. (1989). Fossil history of the terrestrial Carnivora. In Gittleman, J. L. (ed.),Carnivore Behavior, Ecology and Evolution, Comstock, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, pp. 536–568.
Martins, E. P., and Garland, T., Jr. (1991). Phylogenetic analysis of the correlated evolution of continuous characters: A simulation study.Evolution 45 534–557.
Maynard Smith, J., and Savage, R. C. (1956). Some locomotory adaptations in mammals.J. Linn. Soc. 42 603–622.
McNaughton, S. J. (1986). Grazing in lawns: animals in herds, plant form and coevolution.Am. Nat. 124 863–886.
Mellett, J. S. (1977).Paleobiology of North American Hyaenodon(Mammalia, Creodonta), Contrib. Vert. Evol. Vol. 1, S. Karger, Basel.
Munthe, K. (1989). The skeleton of the Borophaginae (Carnivora, Canidae): Morphology and function.Univ. Calif. Publ. Geol. Sci. 133 1–115.
Nesbit Evans, E. M., Van Couvering, J. A. H., and Andrews, P. (1981). Palaeoecology of Miocene Sites in Western Kenya.J. Hum. Evol. 10 99–116.
Pascual, R., and Ortiz Jaureguizar, E. (1990). Evolving climates and mammal faunas in Cenozoic South America.J. Hum. Evol. 19 23–60.
Pennycuick, C. J. (1975). On the running of the gnu (Connochaetes taurinus) and other mammals.J. Exp. Biol. 63 775–779.
Pennycuick, C. J. (1979). Energy costs of locomotion and the concept of a “foraging radius.” In Sinclair, A. R. E., and Norton-Griffiths, M. (eds.),Serengeti: Dynamics of an Ecosystem, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 164–184.
Reyment, R. A., and Blackith, R. E. (1984).Multivariate Morphometrics, Academic Press, London.
Savage, R. J. G. (1977). Evolution in carnivorous mammals.Palaeontology 20 237–271.
Schaller, G. B. (1972).The Serengeti Lion, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Scott, K. M. (1985). Allometric trends and locomotor adaptations in the Bovidae.Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 179 197–288.
Scott, K. M. (1987). Allometry and habitat-related adaptations in the postcranial skeleton of Cervidae. In Wemmer, C. (ed.),Biology and Management of the Cervidae, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp. 65–80.
Shipman, P., and Walker, A. (1989). The costs of becoming a predator.J. Hum. Evol. 18 373–392.
Simmonetta, A. M. (1966). Osservazion etologiche e ecologiche sui dik-dik (Madoqua Mammalia Bovidae) in Somalia.Monitore Zool. Ital. Suppl. 74 1–33.
Simpson, G. G. (1944).Tempo and Mode in Evolution, Columbia University Press, New York.
Simpson, G. G. (1951).Horses, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Singh, G. (1988). History of aridland vegetation and climate: A global perspective.Biol. Rev. 63 156–196.
Stanley, S. M. (1992). An ecological theory for the origin ofHomo.Paleobiology 18 237–257.
Strang, K. T., and Steudal, K. (1990). Explaining the scaling of transport costs: The role of stride frequency and stride length.J. Zool. Lond. 221 343–358.
Swihart, R. K., Slade, N. A., and Bergstrom, B. J. (1988). Relating body size to the rate of home range use in mammals.Ecology 69 393–399.
Taylor, C. R., Schmidt-Nielsen, K., Dmi'el, R., and Fedak, M. (1971). Effect of hypothermia and heat balance during running in the African hunting dog.Am. J. Physiol. 220 823–827.
Taylor, C. R., Heglund, N. C., and Maloiy, G. M. O. (1982). Energetics and mechanics of terrestrial locomotion. I. Metabolic energy consumption as a function of speed and body size in birds and mammals.J. Exp. Biol. 97 1–12.
Van Valkenburgh, B. (1985). Locomotory diversity in past and present guilds of large predatory mammals.paleobiology 11 406–428.
Van Valkenburgh, B. (1987). Skeletal indicators of locomotor behaviour in living and extinct carnivores.J. Vert. Paleont. 7 162–182.
Van Valkenburgh, B. (1988). Trophic diversity in past and present guilds of large predatory mammals.Paleobiology 14 155–173.
Van Valkenburgh, B. (1991). Iterative evolution of hypercarnivory in canids (Mammalia: Carnivora): Evolutionary interactions among sympatric predators.Paleobiology 17 340–362.
Vermeij, G. J. (1987).Evolution and Escalation: An Ecological History of Life, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Webb, S. D. (1977). A history of savanna vertebrates in the New World. Part 1: North America.Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 8 355–380.
Webb, S. D. (1983). The rise and fall of the Late Miocene ungulate fauna in North America. In Nitecki, M. H. (ed.),Coevolution, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 267–306.
Werdelin, L., and Solunias, N. (1991). The Hyaenidae: Taxonomy, systematics and evolution.Fossils Strata 30 1–104.
Wilhelm, P. B. (1993). Morphometric Analyses of the Limb Skeleton of Generalized Mammals in Relation to Locomotor Behavior, with Applications to Fossil Mammals. Ph.D. dissertation, Brown University.
Wolfe, J. A. (1985). Distribution of major vegetational types during the Tertiary.Am. Geophys. Union Monogr. 32 357–375.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Janis, C.M., Wilhelm, P.B. Were there mammalian pursuit predators in the tertiary? Dances with wolf avatars. J Mammal Evol 1, 103–125 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01041590
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01041590