RT Journal Article
T1 Biomechanical simulations reveal a trade-off between adaptation to glacial climate and dietary niche versatility in European cave bears.
A1 Pérez-Ramos, Alejandro
A1 Tseng, Jack
A1 Grandal D'Anglade, Aurora
A1 Rabeder, Gernot
A1 Pastor, Francisco
A1 Figueirido-Castillo, Francisco Borja
K1 Osos de las cavernas
K1 Biomecánica
K1 Cráneo
AB The cave bear is one of the best known extinct large mammals that inhabited Europe during the “Ice Age,” becoming extinct ≈24,000 years ago along with other members of the Pleistocene megafauna. Long-standing hypotheses speculate that many cave bears died during their long hibernation periods, which were necessary to overcome the severe and prolonged winters of the Last Glacial. Here, we investigate how long hibernation periods in cave bears would have directly affected their feeding biomechanics using CT-based biomechanical simulations of skulls of cave and extant bears. Our results demonstrate that although large paranasal sinuses were necessary for, and consistent with, long hibernation periods, trade-offs in sinus-associated cranial biomechanical traits restricted cave bears to feed exclusively on low energetic vegetal resources during the predormancy period. This biomechanical trade-off constitutes a new key factor to mechanistically explain the demise of this dominant Pleistocene megafaunal species as a direct consequence of climate cooling.
PB AAAS
YR 2020
FD 2020-04-01
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/29543
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/29543
LA eng
NO Pérez-Ramos, A., Tseng, Z. J., Grandal-D’Anglade, A., Rabeder, G., Pastor, F. J., & Figueirido, B. (2020). Biomechanical simulations reveal a trade-off between adaptation to glacial climate and dietary niche versatility in European cave bears. Science advances, 6(14), eaay9462.
NO Copyright de los autores.
NO This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) (grants CGL2012-37866 and CGL2015-68300P to B.F.).
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 23 ene 2026