Large Hypercarnivore Packs Were Key to Shaping the Pleistocene Ecosystem

It turns out that hypercarnivores were key to shaping the Pleistocene epoch. Scientists have found that these meat eaters were crucial to culling huge, hungry herbivores such as mammoths, mastodons and giant ground sloths.

Recreating Pleistocene communities exactly isn't possible. However, researchers can look at the fossil record in order to better understand what these ecosystems may have been like.

In this latest study, the researchers found that, because of their larger size, ancient carnivores were capable of killing young mammoths, mastodons and other species. This prevented the large herbivores from destroying ecosystems in the Pleistocene, which ended about 11,700 years ago. In fact, the extinction of the largest hyper-carnivores, such as lions, sabertooth cats and hyenas, during the late Pleistocene was almost certainly caused by the disappearance of their preferred prey.

"Based on observations of living mega-herbivores, such as elephants, rhinos, giraffes and hippos, scientists have generally thought that these species were largely immune to predation, mainly because of their large size as adults and strong maternal protection of very young offspring," said Van Vlkenburgh, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Data on modern lion kills of elephants indicates that larger prides are more successful and we argue that Pleistocene carnivore species probably formed larger prides and packs than are typically observed today-making it easier for them to attack and kill fairly large juveniles and young adult mega-herbivores."

These latest findings reveal a bit more about this ancient time. More specifically, the research could have implications for animal conservation efforts today, since it shows how these animals interacted with one another in these conditions.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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