Publications by authors named "Daniel A Lauer"
Terrestrial carnivorans, with their diverse diets and unique adaptations such as the carnassial tooth, offer insights into the connections between functional traits and the climatic and environmental conditions they inhabit. They shed light on functional trait-environment relationships at the highest trophic levels across a broad range of environmental conditions. In this study, we evaluate the relationship between relative blade length (RBL) of the lower carnassial tooth, a key dietary adaptation among terrestrial carnivorans for slicing and grinding food items, and climate.
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- Mammalian megafauna are large animals that have been important for Earth's ecosystems for millions of years, but their numbers have been decreasing due to climate changes and the evolution of early humans.
- The study looks at how the loss of different species of large herbivores in eastern Africa affected their roles in the environment over the last 7.4 million years.
- It was found that significant changes in the environment and loss of diversity mainly started affecting how these herbivores interacted with their habitats during the mid-Pleistocene, when grasslands expanded and climates changed.
Resilient landscapes have helped maintain terrestrial biodiversity during periods of climatic and environmental change. Identifying the tempo and mode of landscape transitions and the drivers of landscape resilience is critical to maintaining natural systems and preserving biodiversity given today's rapid climate and land use changes. However, resilient landscapes are difficult to recognize on short time scales, as perturbations are challenging to quantify and ecosystem transitions are rare.
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