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Ancient Feeding Ecology and Niche Differentiation of Pleistocene Horses

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Fossil Horses of South America

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Abstract

Carbon isotopes provide key data for understanding the ecology of extinct horses during the Plio-Pleistocene in South America. Hippidion and Equus had very different diets. This flexibility in their diet and by extension in their occupied biome is in agreement with hypothesis that generalists and open biome specialists from North America experienced a successful radiation throughout South America. The autopodial elements are better predictors of body mass in horses. Evolutionary history of horses was strongly influenced by environmental conditions and kind of substrates.

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  1. INCUAPA CONICET-UNICEN, Olavarría, Argentina

    José Luis Prado

  2. Departamento de Paleobiología, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

    María Teresa Alberdi

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  1. José Luis Prado
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Prado, J.L., Alberdi, M.T. (2017). Ancient Feeding Ecology and Niche Differentiation of Pleistocene Horses. In: Fossil Horses of South America. The Latin American Studies Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55877-6_6

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