This is an introductory text for students interested in identification and analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites. The emphasis is on animals whose remains inform us about the relationship between humans and their natural and social environments, especially site formation processes, subsistence strategies, the processes of domestication, and paleoenvironments. Examining examples from all over the world, from the Pleistocene period up to the present, this volume is organized in a way that is parallel to faunal study, beginning with background information, bias in a faunal assemblage, and basic zooarchaeological methods. This revised edition reflects developments in zooarchaeology during the past decade. It includes sections on enamel ultrastructure and incremental analysis, stable isotyopes and trace elements, ancient genetics and enzymes, environmental reconstruction, people as agents of environmental change, applications of zooarchaeology in animal conservation and heritage management, and a discussion of issues pertaining to the curation of archaeofaunal materials.

Changes in the subsistence economies during the 2000-year colonization of the Leeward and Virgin islands are discussed. The colonists migrated from northern South America with traditions for producing ceramics, engaging in horticulture, fishing, gathering, and managing captive animals. Based on analysis of pairs of faunal samples from four islands, I am able to show some consistent changes in the relative abundances of some species, the sizes of individual animals, and the mean trophic levels of the aquatic components of the faunas. The changes that take place through time are: decline in the relative abundance of land crabs; a relative increase in the abundance of molluscs; decline in the mean trophic level of reef fishes; a subsequent increase or decrease in the mean trophic level of inshore and pelagic fishes. In those sites where the mean trophic level of inshore and pelagic fishes occurs it is dominated by tuna and other large predators, increased dependence upon herrings and other small fishes reduced the mean trophic level. These changes accompanied a human population increase and intensification of the horticultural enterprise. The root cause of many of these changes is overexploitation.Compensation for the decline in some resources is accomplished through changes in fishing technology.

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Zooarchaeologists have used several methods to assess the relative dietary contribution of species found at archaeological sites. The most common methods are either based upon the assumption that bone weight is a fixed percentage of total body weight, or require estimating an "average" body size for identified taxa. In fact, the relationship between parameters of bone and body mass is generally allometric and can be described by linear regression. Use of allometric models places original body mass predictions on a more sound biological basis and makes calculations of "average" weight unnecessary. The potential of allometry is discussed and objections addressed with the goal of encouraging others to develop allometric formulae and to use them in their research.