There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
(08-16-2015, 12:33 PM)tigerluver Wrote: There's a lot to read, I'll get to it. Nice discussion!
One thing looks certain, the Toba eruption likely caused the downsizing of many species, if not their extinction. I feel the larger tigers were probably wiped out due to the energy loss caused by the volcanic winter. The temperature drop killed off much vegetation as Guate stated, thus the smaller herbivores likely only survived as they could handle the lack of energy. The large tigers and lion(-like) cats(as in the supersize Ngandong form) probably died off as a result of the lack of prey biomass.
Although, I still wonder what sealed the fate of some felines while others made it to today. The tiger and leopard's survival shows in the extreme adaptability of the subspecies. The lion, jaguar, and cheetah (which has faced a bottleneck) did well for themselves too. Was it just the genetic inability to adapt that caused the extinction of the cave lion and Machairodonts? Not even the smaller ones survived. Still being relative of today's cats, one would expect them to have similar adaptability. It's a perplexing event in Earth's history.
Yep, that triggers my curiosity as well.
Some Cave lion populations were definitely no bigger than the modern big cats, but still wonder they couldn't manage to adapt like their modern cousins.