The Pleistocene ungulate communities from the western coastal plains of South Africa's Cape Floristic Region (CFR) are diverse and dominated by grazers, in contrast to the region's Holocene and historical faunas, which are relatively species‐poor and dominated by small‐bodied browsers and mixed feeders. An expansion of grassy habitats is clearly implied by the Pleistocene faunas, but the presence of ruminant grazers that cannot survive the summer dry season typical of the region today suggests other important paleoecological changes. Here we use dental ecometrics to explore the paleoecological implications of the region's Pleistocene faunas. We show that the dental traits (hypsodonty and occlusal topography) of the ungulates that occurred historically in the CFR track annual and summer aridity, and we use these relationships to reconstruct past aridity. Our results indicate that the Pleistocene faunas signal paleoenvironments that were on average less arid than today, including during the summer, consistent with other lines of evidence that suggest a higher water table and expansion of well‐watered habitats. Greater water availability can be explained by lower temperature and reduced evapotranspiration during cooler phases of the Pleistocene, probably coupled with enhanced groundwater recharge due to increased winter precipitation.

中文翻译：

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南非开普植物区西部沿海平原的更新世动物群的生态学和古生态意义

来自南非开普植物区（CFR）的西部沿海平原的更新世有蹄类动物群落是多种多样的，并且以放牧者为主，而该地区的全新世和历史动物则相对贫乏，并且以小型浏览器和混合动物为主馈线。更新世动物群显然暗示着草木栖息地的扩大，但是存在无法幸存下来的反刍放牧者，这是当今该地区典型的夏季干旱季节，表明了其他重要的古生态变化。在这里，我们使用牙科生态计量学来探索该地区的更新世动物群的古生态意义。我们显示，历史上发生在CFR轨道上的有蹄类动物的牙齿特征（假齿和咬合形）跟踪年度和夏季干旱，我们利用这些关系来重建过去的干旱。我们的结果表明，更新世动物群所发出的古环境信号比今天（包括夏季）干旱的平均水平要低，这与其他证据表明地下水位较高和生境良好的栖息地相一致。在更新世的较冷阶段，较低的温度和较低的蒸散量可以解释更多的水可利用量，这可能是由于冬季降水增加而增加了地下水补给。