Dietary habits of the cave bear from the Late Pleistocene in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula
| Autor: | Maite Arilla, Jordi Rosell, Iván Ramírez-Pedraza, Julià Maroto, Spyridoula Pappa, Ferran Millán, Florent Rivals, Ruth Blasco, Joaquim Soler, Narcís Soler |
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| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Hibernation
010506 paleontology Herbivore geography.geographical_feature_category biology Pleistocene Ecology social sciences musculoskeletal system 010502 geochemistry & geophysics biology.organism_classification 01 natural sciences humanities Geography Cave Peninsula Period (geology) Cave bear Omnivore 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Earth-Surface Processes |
| Zdroj: | Quaternary International. 557:63-69 |
| ISSN: | 1040-6182 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.quaint.2019.09.043 |
| Popis: | The aim of this study is to understand the feeding habits of the cave bear, Ursus spelaeus by investigating the dental microwear patterns of 106 molars from six Late Pleistocene caves in Catalonia (Spain): Ermitons Cave, Arbreda Cave, Mollet Cave, Llenes Cave, Toll Cave, and Teixoneres Cave. Dental microwear patterns of U. spelaeus were compared with a reference collection of extant ursid species. The results show an omnivorous and carnivorous diet in all sites analyzed with both intra- and inter-site pattern variability. Unlike previous studies, here dental microwear identified more carnivorous habits for the herbivorous cave bear during the days/weeks before death. More varied and higher energy items would help to cope with the hibernation period. The variability between the samples could be due to the characteristic climatic shifts of the Late Pleistocene and to the corresponding differences in the availability of resources. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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