研究小组以马尔科夫网络、生态位划分和地球系统模型为主题，重建了北美食物网，并模拟了灭绝事件前后的生态空间占用情况。
研究小组在最新的白垩纪恐龙动物群的研究中发现了一个转变，虽然中等体型的物种平衡了大型食草动物的损失，但恐龙的生态位在其他方面是稳定和静止的，可能导致它们的死亡。较小的脊椎动物，包括哺乳动物，从最近的白垩纪开始，一直到大灭绝之后，都遵循着营养影响增加和生态位限制放松的一致轨迹。哺乳动物在大灭绝事件后并不是简单地繁殖；相反，它们早期的生态多样化可能帮助它们生存下来。
据介绍，长期以来，人们一直在争论，为什么非鸟类恐龙灭绝了，而哺乳动物和其他谱系却在6600万年前的白垩纪/古近纪大灭绝中幸存了下来。
附：英文原文
Title: Shifts in food webs and niche stability shaped survivorship and extinction at the end-Cretaceous
Author: Jorge García-Girón, Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Janne Alahuhta, David G. DeMarJr., Jani Heino, Philip D. Mannion, Thomas E. Williamson, Gregory P. Wilson Mantilla, Stephen L. Brusatte
Issue&Volume: 2022-12-07
Abstract: It has long been debated why groups such as non-avian dinosaurs became extinct whereas mammals and other lineages survived the Cretaceous/Paleogene mass extinction 66 million years ago. We used Markov networks, ecological niche partitioning, and Earth System models to reconstruct North American food webs and simulate ecospace occupancy before and after the extinction event. We find a shift in latest Cretaceous dinosaur faunas, as medium-sized species counterbalanced a loss of megaherbivores, but dinosaur niches were otherwise stable and static, potentially contributing to their demise. Smaller vertebrates, including mammals, followed a consistent trajectory of increasing trophic impact and relaxation of niche limits beginning in the latest Cretaceous and continuing after the mass extinction. Mammals did not simply proliferate after the extinction event; rather, their earlier ecological diversification might have helped them survive.
DOI: add5040
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add5040