The tale of a short-tailed cat
The pardel lynx Lynx pardinus is today restricted to small populations living in southern Iberian Peninsula. However, this endangered species was widely spread throughout Iberia until historical times and is currently the subject of intense conservation programs. Paleontological data suggest that it...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2021 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:237630 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/237630 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106840 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Europe Pleistocene Carnivora Felidae Lynx Evolution Taxonomy Paleobiogeography Paleoecology |
| Sumario: | The pardel lynx Lynx pardinus is today restricted to small populations living in southern Iberian Peninsula. However, this endangered species was widely spread throughout Iberia until historical times and is currently the subject of intense conservation programs. Paleontological data suggest that its past geographical range was much wider, including also southern France and northern Italy. Here, we report exceptionally preserved fossil remains of L. pardinus from the Late Pleistocene (about 40'000 years) of Ingarano (Italy), which represent the largest sample of fossil lynx currently known in Europe. This new evidence allows (1) to revise the taxonomy of European fossil lynxes, (2) to extend far southeast the paleobiogeographical distribution of L. pardinus, and (3) to offer new insights on the evolutionary history (e.g., relationships with other extinct and extant lynx species) and paleobiology (e.g., intraspecific variation, body mass) of this iconic European felid. |
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