Diet and seasonality in the Lower Pecos: evaluating coprolite data sets with cluster analysis

This article presents an analysis of three previous coprolite studies from Hinds Cave (41VV456), Val Verde County, Texas (Edwards, 1990; Stock, 1983; Williams-Dean, 1978). Patterns of dietary consumption related to season, microhabitat exploitation and diet breadth are explored with the statistical techniques of the cluster analysis and Canonical Discriminant Function Analysis (CDA). Shafer (1988) has proposed a model of seasonal mobility for the Lower Pecos that suggests that Hinds Cave would be predominantly occupied in the late summer/early fall. The results of the current analysis support the view that the site was also occupied intermittently during the rest of the seasonal cycle, suggesting a flexible mobility strategy that responded to annual and seasonal fluctuations in resource availability.