Evolution of community composition in several carnivore palaeoguilds from the European Pleistocene: the role of interspecific competition

Abstract

This study focuses on ecological processes such as competition or predation from an evolutionary perspective. First, we attempt to test the idea that species with similar feeding requirements tend to coexist by separating morphologically or behaviourally. Then, the Barton–David test was applied to several carnivore communities (felids and canids) separated in time. Although the preservation bias of the fossil record renders our conclusions tentative, the general equal size–ratio pattern in most of the guilds examined indicates that inter‐specific competition for prey species seems to be a good candidate to explain the evolution of guild composition and morphological traits throughout the Pleistocene for the two groups considered, felids and canids.