TheIce Age coyotes were much largerthan the current ones, more similar to wolves. This is the conclusion reached by Julie Meachen, from the National Center for Evolution Synthesis in Durham, North Carolina (USA), and her colleagues after studying skeletons of these canids with ages ranging from 38,000 years old to the most modern specimens.
Researchers suspect their bodies shrunk after vast wildlife extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene, between 11,500 and 10,000 years ago, according to an article published today.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). So they passedfrom weighing up to 25 kilograms to around 10-18 kilos maximum. The increase in temperatures, which rose 6º C on average in the planet in a period of 5,000 years, could be one of the causes if we take into account that, when temperatures rise, large animals have a worse time than small ones.
However, since this phenomenon did not affect other Ice Age carnivores, the authors suggest another more plausible hypothesis: thatPleistocene coyotes were “larger and more robust in response to the presence of larger competitors and large prey”. After the extinctions, large prey disappeared, as well as some giant wolves, and coyotes did not need a large body to compete. As smaller individuals needed to consume less food, in the new “scenario” the reduction in body size was a significant advantage.
