INFERRING SOCIALITY IN EXTINCT CARNIVORANS FROM DENTAL MICROWEAR TEXTURES: LESSONS FROM BONE CONSUMPTION AND PACK STATUS IN MODERN YELLOWSTONE WOLVES

摘要: Cooperative hunting has been observed in at least three families of carnivorans (Candiae, Felidae, and Hyaenidae), which use this tactic to capture larger prey than could be caught alone. The prevalence of cooperative hunting by extinct carnivorans, such as dire wolves and the sabertoothed cat Smilodon, remains debated, with evidence cited from skeletal pathologies, taphonomy (eg, mass death assemblages), and phylogenetics. Alternate evidence might come from how food is shared within a group based on status, as determined by relatedness, breeding availability, and sex. Higher status may grant individuals access to the more desirable carcass parts, whereas subordinates may be given less desirable gristle and bones. Such discrimination is observed in modern gray wolves, but requires a proxy to apply to the fossil record. Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) quantifies microscopic tooth textures in 3D and is a valid proxy of durophagy (eg, bone consumption). We used DMTA on Yellowstone (YNP) wolves, which are an ideal test population due to extensive field observation of pack/individual behavior, and thorough postmortem skull collection since reintroduction. Further, stable isotope analysis shows that their most common prey are elk, which are large enough to be shared by a pack. We hypothesized that dominant wolves eat less bone than subordinate packmates and that that this difference would be evident from DMTA data. Identifying similar patterns via DMTA in fossils could be used to infer cooperative hunting in extinct carnivorans. Here, we scanned the 2nd lower molar from 33 wolves of 7 packs and dispersers, 15 …