RT Journal Article
T1 Coprolites in natural traps: direct evidence of bone-eating carnivorans from the Late Miocene Batallones-3 site, Madrid, Spain
A1 Abella, Juan
A1 Martín Perea, David Manuel
A1 Valenciano, Alberto
A1 Hontecillas Tamayo, Daniel
A1 Montoya, Plini
A1 Morales, Jorge
AB We describe two carnivoran coprolites found in the pseudokarst natural carnivore trap of Batallones-3, from the Late Miocene of Spain. The larger one, comprising multiple indistinguishable fragments of broken and corroded bones, indicates that the producer of the dropping might have been highly capable of crushing the softer parts of large bones. On the other hand, the smaller one shows several relatively larger and more complete bone fragments, thus exhibiting a greater capacity to break and swallow large portions of bone. The external morphology of the large coprolite is similar to that of extant bears, whereas the smaller one more closely resembles that of the living insectivorous hyaenid Proteles in morphology, on the one hand, and that of the viverrid Genetta in size, on the other hand. We hypothesize that the amphicyonid Magerycion anceps was the producer of the large coprolite and the jackal-sized basal hyaenid Protictitherium crassum excreted the smaller one. Thus, we present the first direct evidence of a bone durophagous diet in the carnivorans of Batallones.
PB Taylor & Francis
SN 0024-1164
YR 2021
FD 2021
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/8516
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/8516
LA eng
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)/FEDER
NO Universidad Complutense de Madrid/Banco de Santander
NO Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
NO Universidad Complutense de Madrid/Comunidad de Madrid
NO Gobierno de Aragón
NO Generalitat de Catalunya
DS Docta Complutense
RD 29 abr 2024