Hostname: page-component-5b777bbd6c-pf7kn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-22T04:38:09.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Constraint and adaptation in the bone-cracking canid Osteoborus (Mammalia: Canidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Lars Werdelin
Lars Werdelin*
Affiliation:
Department of Paleozoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, S-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The borophagine canids were bone-cracking scavengers in the Miocene-Pleistocene of North America. In this they parallel the Recent hyenas. This paper analyzes the borophagine adaptation in relation to that of hyaenids, using Osteoborus cyonoides as an example. The emphasis during canid evolution on the posterior molars, which is a derived condition, created a constraint on the adaptation of borophagines. This constraint meant that the borophagines used P4/4 as bone-cracking teeth, whereas hyaenids use P3/3. The latter adaptation has the advantage of separating the bone-cracking teeth from the meat-cutting portion of the dentition, thereby allowing a dual purpose dentition in hyaenids. In borophagines, no such dual purpose was possible, and it is suggested that they were closer to obligate bone-cracking scavengers than Recent hyaenids. Other than the evolution of a specialized bone-cracking tooth, the borophagines adapted to bone cracking by evolving a vaulted and strengthened skull for the dissipation of the strong forces generated during bone cracking. In this they again parallel the hyaenids. Evolution within borophagines involved an elaboration of patterns already set at the group's inception, creating an evolutionary trend which was mediated by the constraint on the bone-cracking morphology. This trend may be due to selection or sorting, or may, under certain assumptions, be stochastic. Other evolutionary trends may also be epiphenomena of constraints that lock morphological evolution.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , Fall 1989 , pp. 387 - 401
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Literature Cited

Bakker, R. R. 1983. The deer flees, the wolf pursues: incongruencies in predator-prey coevolution. Pp. 350–382. In Futuyma, D. J., and Slatkin, M. (eds.), Coevolution. Sinauer Associates; Sunderland, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Berta, A. 1987. Origin, diversification, and zoogeography of the South American Canidae. Fieldiana: Zoology 39:455–471.Google Scholar
Buckland-Wright, J. C. 1971. The distribution of biting forces in the skulls of dogs and cats. Journal of Dental Research 50:1168–1169.Google Scholar
Buckland-Wright, J. C. 1978. Bone structure and the patterns of force transmission in the cat skull (Felis catus). Journal of Morphology 155:35–62.Google Scholar
Carrier, D. R. 1987. The evolution of locomotor stamina in tetrapods: circumventing a mechanical constraint. Paleobiology 13:326–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colbert, E. H. 1939. Carnivora of the Tung Gur Formation of Mongolia. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 76:47–81.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D. 1892. A hyaena and other Carnivora from Texas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Philadelphia 44:326–327.Google Scholar
Dalquest, W. W. 1968. The bone-eating dog, Borophagus diversidens Cope. Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Sciences 31:115–129.Google Scholar
Dalquest, W. W. 1969. Pliocene carnivores of Coffee Ranch. Bulletin of the Texas Memorial Museum 15:1–8.Google Scholar
Flynn, J. J., and Galiano, H. 1982. Phylogeny of early Tertiary Carnivora, with a description of a new species of Protictis from the Middle Eocene of northwestern Wyoming. American Museum Novitates 2725.Google Scholar
Flynn, J. J., Neff, N. A., and Tedford, R. H. 1988. Phylogeny of the Carnivora. Pp. 73–115. In Benton, M. J. (ed.), The Phylogeny and Classification of the Tetrapods. Clarendon Press; Oxford.Google Scholar
Galiano, H., and Frailey, D. 1977. Chasmaporthetes kani, new species from China, with remarks on phylogenetic relationships of genera within the Hyaenidae (Mammalia, Carnivora). American Museum Novitates 2632.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, L. 1980. Hyainailouros sulzeri, mammifère Créodonte du Miocène d'Europe. Annales de Paléontologie (Vertébrés) 66:19–73.Google Scholar
Gorniak, G., and Gans, C. 1980. Quantitative assay of electromyograms during mastication in domestic cats (Felis catus). Journal of Morphology 163:253–281.Google Scholar
Gould, S. J. 1989. A developmental constraint in Cerion, with comments on the definition and interpretation of constraint in evolution. Evolution 43:516–539.Google ScholarPubMed
Gould, S. J., and Vrba, E. S. 1982. Exaptation—a missing term in the science of form. Paleobiology 8:4–15.Google Scholar
Granger, W. 1938. A giant oxyaenid from the Upper Eocene of Mongolia. American Museum Novitates 969.Google Scholar
Greaves, W. S. 1978. The jaw lever system in ungulates: a new model. Journal of Zoology, London 184:271–285.Google Scholar
Greaves, W. S. 1983. A functional analysis of carnassial biting. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 20:353–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greaves, W. S. 1985a. The generalized carnivore jaw. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 85:267–274.Google Scholar
Greaves, W. S. 1985b. The mammalian postorbital bar as a torsion-resisting helical strut. Journal of Zoology, London 207:125–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, R. M. Jr. 1987. Evolution of the aeluroid Carnivora: significance of the auditory structure in the nimravid cat Dinictis. American Museum Novitates 2886.Google Scholar
Imbrie, J. 1956. Biometrical methods in the study of invertebrate fossils. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 108:213–252.Google Scholar
Kruuk, H. 1972. The Spotted Hyaena: A Study of Predation and Social Behavior. University of Chicago Press; Chicago.Google Scholar
Kurtén, B., and Anderson, E. 1980. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press; New York.Google Scholar
Kurtén, B., and Werdelin, L. 1988. A review of the genus Chasmaporthetes Hay, 1921 (Carnivora, Hyaenidae). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 8:46–66.Google Scholar
Levinton, J. S. 1988. Genetics, Paleontology, and Macroevolution. Cambridge University Press; Cambridge.Google Scholar
MacDonald, J. R. 1967. A new species of Late Oligocene dog, Sunkahetanka sheffleri, from South Dakota. Contributions in Science, Los Angeles County Museum 127:1–5.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. 1909. The Carnivora and Insectivora of the Bridger Basin, Middle Miocene. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 9:291–567.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. 1924. Third contribution to the Snake Creek Fauna. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 50:59–211.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D., and Stirton, R. A. 1930. Osteology and affinities of Borophagus. University of California Publications, Bulletin of the Department of Geological Sciences 19:171–216.Google Scholar
Maynard Smith, J., Burian, R., Kaufmann, S., Alberch, P., Campbell, J., Goodwin, B., Lande, R., Raup, D., and Wolpert, L. 1985. Developmental constraints and evolution. Quarterly Review of Biology 60:265–287.Google Scholar
Munthe, K. 1989. The skeleton of the Borophaginae (Carnivora, Canidae). Morphology and function. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 133.Google Scholar
Neff, N. A. 1983. The Basicranial Anatomy of Nimravidae (Mammalia: Carnivora): Character Analyses of Phylogenetic Inferences. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, City University, New York, New York.Google Scholar
Nelson, G., and Platnick, N. 1981. Systematics and Biogeography: Cladistics and Vicariance. Columbia University Press; New York.Google Scholar
Radinsky, L. B. 1981. Evolution of skull shape in carnivores. 1. Representative modern carnivores. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 15:369–388.Google Scholar
Richey, K. A. 1979. Variation and evolution in the premolar teeth of Osteoborus and Borophagus (Canidae). Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences 7:105–123.Google Scholar
Rosevear, D. R. 1974. The Carnivores of West Africa. British Museum (Natural History); London.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1970. Mammals from the early Cenozoic of Chubut, Argentina. Breviora 360:1–13.Google Scholar
Toohey, L. 1959. The species of Nimravus (Carnivora, Felidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 118:77–112.Google Scholar
Vrba, E. S., and Gould, S. J. 1986. The hierarchical expansion of sorting and selection: sorting and selection cannot be equated. Paleobiology 12:217–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wayne, R. K., and O'Brien, S. J. 1987. Allozyme divergence within the Canidae. Systematic Zoology 36:339–355.Google Scholar
Webb, S. D. 1969. The Pliocene Canidae of Florida. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences 14:273–308.Google Scholar
Weijs, W. A., and Dantuma, R. 1981. Functional anatomy of the masticatory apparatus in the rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus L.). Netherlands Journal of Zoology 31:99–147.Google Scholar
Werdelin, L. 1981. Statistical Studies of Pleistocene and Recent Mammals. Ph. D. thesis, University of Stockholm. Stockholm, Sweden.Google Scholar
Werdelin, L. 1986. Comparison of skull shape in marsupial and placental carnivores. Australian Journal of Zoology 34:109–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werdelin, L. 1987a. Jaw geometry and molar morphology in marsupial carnivores: analysis of a constraint and its macroevolutionary consequences. Paleobiology 13:342–350.Google Scholar
Werdelin, L. 1987b. Some observations on Sarcophilus laniarius and the evolution of Sarcophilus. Records of the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston 90:1–27.Google Scholar
Werdelin, L. 1988a. Studies of fossil hyaenids: the genera Ictitherium Roth & Wagner and Sinictitherium Kretzoi, and a new species of Ictitherium. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 93:93–105.Google Scholar
Werdelin, L. 1988b. Studies of fossil hyaenids: the genera Thalassictis Gervais ex Nordmann, Palhyaena Gervais, Hyaenictitherium Kretzoi, Lycyaena Hensel and Palinhyaena Qiu, Huang & Guo. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 92:211–265.Google Scholar
Zdansky, O. 1924. Jungtertiäre Carnivoren Chinas. Paleontologia Sinica, series C 2:1–149.Google Scholar