DMTA here suggests that extinct carnivorans at La Brea may
have utilized carcasses less than do some carnivorans today. This
idea is inconsistent with interpretations of high incidences of tooth
breakage in extinct Pleistocene carnivorans from La Brea
compared with extant taxa. We suggest that tooth breakage data
may be recording damage from both carcass utilization and preycapture,
with greater tooth breakage occurring due to increased
prey size. Lower mean values for DMTA attributes consistent with
greater durophagy (i.e., Asfc and Tfv) in both S. fatalis and P. atrox
compared with both P. leo and C. crucuta, suggest that the late
Pleistocene at La Brea was not any ‘‘tougher’’ (or perhaps
‘‘harder’’) than the African savanna is today. Further, dental
microwear texture comparisons through time offer no evidence
that carcasses were utilized consistently more over time, especially
for P. atrox. Thus, DMTA provides no support for the idea that
prey-resources became scarcer over time. While competition with
humans for prey is unlikely to explain the extinction of P. atrox and
S. fatalis via competition for prey resources at La Brea, further
work is necessary to assess the situation at other sites. Collectively,
there is no evidence for greater carcass utilization during the
Pleistocene; however, high levels of anterior tooth breakage could
instead result from hunting megafauna and/or conspecific
competition at La Brea. Thus, times may have been "tough,"
but not as originally proposed.