Osteophagia and dental wear in herbivores: actualistic data and archaeological evidence

The ability of herbivores to produce damage in bones and antlers has recently been described by the present authors (Cáceres et al., 2011), showing several cases of modified bones and various stages of bone modification due to osteophagic behavior by herbivores. Herbivores chew and eat bones and antlers to make up for mineral scarcity in their diet. In this paper we describe how the consumption of bone and antlers by herbivore can result in distinct differential tooth wear, breakage and the loss of some dental pieces. This damage has also been identified in fossils. These preliminary results are especially relevant in archaeological contexts, because this marked tooth wear can be mistaken for dental disease or lead to the incorrect assignment of age to the animals.     

Taphonomic resolution and hominin subsistence behaviour in the Lower Palaeolithic: differing data scales and interpretive frameworks at Boxgrove and Swanscombe (UK)

The identification of human butchery-signatures on fauna from Lower Palaeolithic sites is well documented and readily identifiable. Such bone surface modifications have the potential to provide not only information about past hominin meat-procurement behaviour but address the wider issue of competition for resources with other carnivore species. To understand and discuss these broader issues both hominin and natural bone surface modifications must be understood and contextualised within a site-specific spatial and temporal framework. This paper presents new results from faunal analysis at two key British Lower Palaeolithic localities: Boxgrove and Swanscombe. It illustrates that different depositional environments and excavation histories have resulted in different scales and resolutions of available data and hence in varying interpretive potentials. At Swanscombe the archaeological record has been disturbed by both fluvial activity and excavation history providing a coarser-grained record of anthropogenic behaviour than previously acknowledged. Conversely, at Boxgrove, a finer-grained, higher resolution record of human behaviours has been preserved; this, combined with both an extensive and intensive excavation strategy, has allowed for a broader discussion of hominin landscape use, resource competition and meat-procurement behaviour. This paper highlights that assessing the specific depositional environment at each site is crucial to understanding Palaeolithic faunal assemblage formation and, consequently, the available data-resolution and behavioural interpretation.     

Taphonomic observations on eastern Australian Cretaceous sauropods

Cretaceous (Albian–Cenomanian) sauropod body fossils are known from the Eromanga Basin of central Queensland and Surat Basin of northern New South Wales/southeastern Queensland. Most bones are uncrushed and undistorted. Associated components of the caudal and forelimb skeleton are dominant in current collections and probably derived from more complete skeletons now lost to erosion, or yet to be exposed. Dorsal and cervical vertebrae have rarely been reported and no cranial material has yet been found. None of the Australian sauropod remains shows evidence of predation or scavenging, but at least two specimens of Wintonotitan wattsi were intimately associated with plant macrofossils allowing limited inference of their postmortem environments.     

Resource intensification in the Late Upper Paleolithic: a view from southern China

Resource intensification is often viewed as a precursor to sedentism and thereby to agriculture. Late Upper Paleolithic sites in China are also seen as important precursors to the beginnings of sedentism and agriculture, but few faunal assemblages have been studied in detail and therefore little is known of pre-Neolithic economies in the region. A large faunal sample from a key site for early pottery and possible rice collection sheds light on subsistence strategies at the end of the Paleolithic. We apply an array of taphonomic analyses to the mammal remains to investigate the extent to which carcasses were processed for within-bone nutrients, which we see as a possible indicator of resource intensification. Determining if this is a regional trend, and/or represents diachronic change in subsistence strategies, will depend on the availability of comparative data in the future.     

The Quaternary fossil record of the genus Testudo in the Iberian Peninsula. Archaeological implications and diachronic distribution in the western Mediterranean

This paper explores the presence of tortoise remains and its meaning in Palaeolithic archaeological contexts. We focus on two topics: (1) the presence or absence of the genus Testudo from the Early Pleistocene to the Holocene in SW Europe; and (2) the relationship between Testudo and the palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental conditions diachronically. In order to address this objective, we collected published and unpublished data from different sites on the eastern Iberian Peninsula. The results obtained by this study demonstrate that Testudo hermanni was the only tortoise present in this area until recent times and its presence in archaeological sites is almost always related to anthropic activities. Finally, the disappearance of Testudo from archaeological sites in some areas is related to climatic changes and events that occurred during the last stages of the Pleistocene.     

Habitat preference of extant African bovids based on astragalus morphology: operationalizing ecomorphology for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction

The habitat preferences of fauna found at palaeontological and archaeological sites can be used to investigate ancient environments and hominin habitat preferences. Here we present a discriminant function model linking astragalus morphology to four broadly defined habitat categories (open, light cover, heavy cover, and closed) using modern bovids of known ecology. Twenty-four measurements were taken on a sample of 286 astragali from 36 extant African antelope species. These measurements were used to generate ratios reflecting shape. An 11 variable discriminant function model was developed that had high classification success rates for complete astragali. Resubstitution analysis, jackknife analysis, and the classification of several “test samples” of specimens suggest that the predictive accuracy of this model is around 87%. The total classification success rates of 87% (jackknifed) or 93% (resubstitution) are considerably higher than those derived in another study of bovid astragalus ecomorphology (67%; [DeGusta, D., Vrba, E.S., 2003. A method for inferring palaeohabitats from the functional morphology of bovid astragali. J. Archaeol. Sci. 30, 1009–1022]) that used a more limited measurement scheme and a smaller sample of bovids than the present study. Different approaches to operationalizing ecomorphic analyses are considered in order to best extract accurate palaeoenvironmental information from palaeontological and archaeological datasets.     

Avian resource depression or intertaxonomic variation in bone density? A test with San Francisco Bay avifaunas

Previous analyses of the Emeryville Shellmound fauna suggested that ever-expanding late Holocene human populations of the San Francisco Bay area depressed a wide range of vertebrate taxa, including cormorants (Phalacrocorax), geese (Anserinae), and large shorebirds (e.g., Numenius, Limosa). Far-reaching implications for prehistoric human behavior, historical ecology, and modern conservation biology have resulted from that work. We test the generality of the bird-based conclusions here by documenting temporal trends in avifaunal abundances from five additional sites located on the San Francisco Peninsula. Analyses of these data reveal patterns identical to those found at Emeryville, showing significant declines through time in the relative abundances of both geese and cormorants between about 2000 and 700 B.P. New photon absorptiometric-based density data for cormorants, geese, and ducks (Anatinae) are used to determine if the declines through time in the relative abundances of geese and cormorants are correlated with variation in the extent of density-mediated attrition observed in these faunas. The data and analyses presented here suggest that while density-mediated attrition played a role in structuring element abundances in these avifaunas, there is no evidence that it varied systematically through time to produce the revealed patterns in taxonomic abundances. Resource depression thus remains a viable hypothesis for the declining abundances of large-sized waterbirds during the late Holocene of the San Francisco Bay region. The new bone density data we present should be useful to analyses of archaeological and paleontological avifaunas wherever these or related taxa are found around the world.     

Taphonomic analysis of remains of mammals eaten by pumas (Puma concolor Carnivora, Felidae) in central Argentina

Prey remains recovered from puma (Puma concolor) scat were analyzed in order to identify taphonomic features produced on them by this predator. Mammal remains are abundant in puma scat, but recognition of bone remains decreases as prey size increases. Modifications produced by digestion are strong. However, micromammal bones show a gradation in preservation that includes well preserved specimens. Data presented here and their interpretation may possibly be extrapolated to zooarchaeological or paleontological assemblage.     

Tooth marks and human consumption: ethnoarchaeological mastication research among foragers of the Central African Republic

Taphonomically, much research has focused on the way in which predators and humans vie for calorically rich sources of protein. Anecdotal evidence from ethnographies and experiments indicate that humans will—as do other obligate carnivores and omnivores—modify animal bones with their teeth during consumption. Recent ethnographic research among the Bofi foragers of the Central African Republic provides an opportunity to explicitly understand the way in which humans imprint bone during mastication. This research identifies the signature of human tooth marks on small mammal skeletons and addresses the way in which these marks may be archaeologically visible. The data presented herein suggests that any model seeking to discuss the range of human dietary choices would be strengthened by considering the impact of humans in zooarchaeological small fauna assemblages that may or may not have technological indicators of a human presence.     

Burned bone in the Howieson’s Poort and post-Howieson’s Poort Middle Stone Age deposits at Sibudu (South Africa): behavioral and taphonomic implications

Despite a growing awareness of the wide range of information that can be provided by detailed analyses of burned bone from archaeological contexts, such analyses are still relatively uncommon. This paper focuses on the behavioral and taphonomic implications of burned bone from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) site of Sibudu Cave (South Africa), reporting on the analysis of a large sample (>377,000 fragments) of bone recovered from the Howieson’s Poort (HP) and post-HP MSA deposits at the site. Faunal remains were initially sorted into burning categories based on changes in color; microscopic analyses focused on the optical properties of the bone matrix (degree of preservation of the bone structure, reflectance and fluorescence) indicated that the color is a valid indicator of thermally altered bone in the Sibudu assemblage. The association of burned bone with hearths, the intensity of burning damage, and the sheer quantity of thermally altered bone suggests that the bone was not burned primarily as a result of natural fires. We propose that the high incidence of burned bone primarily reflects two types of site maintenance activities: first, the discarding of bone into fire as a means of disposing of food waste (as also argued by Cain [2005, Using burned animal bone to look at Middle Stone Age occupation and behavior. J. Archaeol. Sci. 32, 873–884], for a smaller sample of material from the post-HP and late MSA deposits at the site), and second, the incidental burning of bone on/near the surface during the periodic burning of plant-based bedding. In considering the taphonomic implications of the burned bone, we demonstrate that calcined bone is in fact more heavily fragmented than unburnt or moderately burned bone. Furthermore, cortical preservation was negatively correlated with the intensity of burning damage, which has implications for the study of surface modifications. These results indicate the importance of conducting thorough taphonomic analyses prior to making comparisons between units that show differing degrees or intensities of burning damage.