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Built for Strength: Functional Insights from the Thoracolumbar and Sacrocaudal Regions of the Late Miocene Amphicyonid Magericyon anceps (Carnivora, Amphicyonidae) from Batallones-1 (Madrid, Spain)

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Abstract

We describe and discuss the morphology and functional anatomy of the thoracolumbar and sacrocaudal regions of the vertebral column of the late Miocene amphicyonid Magericyon anceps. These regions are essential for body support, and very relevant for locomotion and prey capture, and thus their study provides interesting insights on the paleobiology and biomechanics of this top predator. Magericyon anceps, the last known amphicyonid in the fossil record of Western Europe, is recorded only from the Vallesian sites of Batallones-1 and Batallones-3 (Madrid, Spain), which have yielded hundreds of fossils of this species, constituting one of the best-known samples of an amphicyonid ever recorded. The morphology of the thoracolumbar region of M. anceps shows some interesting features, such as a characteristic anticlinal region and a powerful and remarkably rigid lumbar region. This suggests that the back of this carnivoran was built for supporting extremely strong tensions that could be generated during different activities, such as running, but these tensions would be more likely suffered when subduing prey during hunting. Also, M. anceps had a long muscular tail, which could be helpful in balancing of various body motions during these activities. In summary, all these features suggest that M. anceps was a powerful predator built for strength, supporting previous hypotheses about the adaptation of this carnivoran to fast killing of prey inhabiting relatively well-vegetated habitats.

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Acknowledgements

This study is part of the research project CGL2015-68333-P (MINECO/FEDER, UE). GS is member of the Research Group “Bioacústica Evolutiva y Paleoantropología” and she thanks the Postdoctoral Program from the Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid, Spain) for funding. MJS is member of the Research Groups CSIC 641538 (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, Madrid, Spain), FOCONTUR (Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis, Teruel, Spain), and IDL-RG2 (Coast, Water and Earth surface processes) (Instituto Dom Luiz and Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal). We thank Dr. Juan Francisco Pastor (Museo Anatómico, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain) and Ángel Luis Garvia (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC) for kindly loaning the specimens used for comparison. We also thank Dr. Brian F. Kuhn (Department of Geology & Centre for Anthropological Research, University of Johannesburg, South Africa) for providing the images of the lumbar region of several specimens of Mellivora capensis housed at the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, Pretoria, South Africa. We would like to thank the Hospital “Nuestra Señora de América” (Madrid), and especially María Jesús Siliceo, for performing the CT Scans used in this work. We thank Dr. Eli Amson and the editor Dr. John Wible, whose comments helped to improve the manuscript. Also, we thank the government of the Comunidad de Madrid (Spain) for providing funding for the excavations at Cerro de los Batallones. Finally, we would like to dedicate this paper to our friend and colleague Dr. Stéphane Peigné, a renowned expert in amphicyonids and other carnivorans, who passed away in 2017; he joined us in several field campaigns at the Batallones sites, and in fact, part of the material studied here was excavated with his collaboration.

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  1. Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, Edificio de Ciencias, Campus Universitario, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Spain

    Gema Siliceo

  2. Departamento de Paleobiología, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, C/José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Gema Siliceo, Mauricio Antón, Jorge Morales & Manuel J. Salesa

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  1. Gema Siliceo
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Siliceo, G., Antón, M., Morales, J. et al. Built for Strength: Functional Insights from the Thoracolumbar and Sacrocaudal Regions of the Late Miocene Amphicyonid Magericyon anceps (Carnivora, Amphicyonidae) from Batallones-1 (Madrid, Spain). J Mammal Evol 27, 497–518 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-019-09477-6

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