Abstract
Coyotes (Canis latrans) are an important species in human-inhabited areas. They control pests and are the apex predators in many ecosystems. Because of their importance it is imperative to understand how environmental change will affect this species. The end of the Pleistocene Ice Age brought with it many ecological changes for coyotes and here we statistically determine the changes that occurred in coyotes, when these changes occurred, and what the ecological consequences were of these changes. We examined the mandibles of three coyote populations: Pleistocene Rancho La Brean (13–29 Ka), earliest Holocene Rancho La Brean (8–10 Ka), and Recent from North America, using 2D geometric morphometrics to determine the morphological differences among them. Our results show that these three populations were morphologically distinct. The Pleistocene coyotes had an overall robust mandible with an increased shearing arcade and a decreased grinding arcade, adapted for carnivory and killing larger prey; whereas the modern populations show a gracile morphology with a tendency toward omnivory or grinding. The earliest Holocene populations are intermediate in morphology and smallest in size. These findings indicate that a niche shift occurred in coyotes at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary – from a hunter of large prey to a small prey/more omnivorous animal. Species interactions between Canis were the most likely cause of this transition. This study shows that the Pleistocene extinction event affected species that did not go extinct as well as those that did.
Highlights
Coyotes (Canis latrans) are an important species for their ability to co-exist with humans in urban and suburban areas [1,2,3] where they provide ecosystem services such as control of populations of deer, rodents, and other pests; and present challenges, such as spreading diseases to domestic animals and preying on pets [3, 4]
On average, Pleistocene coyotes were experiencing stronger dorsoventral forces on the mandible during feeding and hunting than living coyotes. This suggests that Pleistocene coyotes were hunting larger prey more frequently and incorporating harder food into their diet
While it is possible that coyotes were scavenging more than hunting, the shape of the thickened anterior corpus suggests that they were hunting with a higher frequency
Summary
Coyotes (Canis latrans) are an important species for their ability to co-exist with humans in urban and suburban areas [1,2,3] where they provide ecosystem services such as control of populations of deer, rodents, and other pests; and present challenges, such as spreading diseases to domestic animals and preying on pets [3, 4]. Coyotes are a behaviorally labile species with the ability to change activity patterns and ecological niche depending upon their circumstances. Examples include changing pack size and prey preferences depending on whether competitors/predators, such as gray wolves, are present or absent [6,7,8]. Extant coyote subspecies in North America are highly mobile, colonizing areas at a rapid rate [9,10,11]. This rapid colonization has led to most extant coyote subspecies being somewhat morphologically and genetically homogenous, which complicates subspecies distinctions [9, 10, 12]
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