Sabretoothed Carnivores and the Killing of Large Prey 英文参考文献.docVIP

SabretoothedCarnivoresandtheKillingofLargePrey KiAndersson1,2*,DavidNorman1,LarsWerdelin2 1DepartmentofEarthSciences,UniversityofCambridge,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom,2DepartmentofPalaeozoology,SwedishMuseumofNaturalHistory,Stockholm, Sweden Abstract Sabre-like canines clearly have the potential to inflict grievous wounds leading to massive blood loss and rapid death. Hypothesesconcerningsabretoothkillingmodesincludeattacktosoftpartssuchasthebellyorthroat,wherebitingdeep isessentialtogeneratestrikesreachingmajorbloodvessels.Sabretoothedcarnivoransarewidelyinterpretedashuntersof largerandmorepowerfulpreythanthatoftheirpresent-daynonsabretoothedrelatives.However,theprecisefunctional advantageofthesabretoothbite,particularlyinrelationtopreysize,isunknown.Here,wepresentanewpoint-to-point bitemodelandshowthat,forsabretooths,depthofthekillingbitedecreasesdramaticallywithincreasingpreysize.The extendedgapeofsabretoothsonlyresultsinconsiderableincreaseinbitedepthwhenbitingintopreywitharadiusofless than,10cm.Forsabretooths,thissize-reversedfunctionaladvantagesuggestspredationonspecieswithinasimilarsize rangetothoseattackedbypresent-daycarnivorans,ratherthan‘‘megaherbivores’’aspreviouslybelieved.Thedevelopment ofthesabretoothconditionappearstorepresentashiftinfunctionandkillingbehaviour,ratherthanoneinpredator-prey relations. Furthermore, our results demonstrate how sabretoothed carnivorans are likely to have evolved along a functionally continuous trajectory: beginning as an extension of a jaw-powered killing bite, as adopted by present-day pantherinecats,followedbyneck-poweredbitingandthereaftershiftingtoneck-poweredshear-biting.Weanticipatethis newinsighttobeastartingpointfordetailedstudyoftheevolutionofpathwaysthatencompassextremespecialisation,for example,understandinghowneck-poweredbitingshiftsintoshear-bitinganditssignificanceforpredator-preyinteractions. We also expect that our model for point-to-point biting and bite depth estimations will yield new insights into the b