How Accurate are Paleoecological Reconstructions of Early Paleontological and Archaeological Sites?

Abstract

Paleoecology allows construction of paleoenvironmental models, faunal changes and evolutionary trends of paleontological taxa using modern analogs. However, when linking modern analogs to paleontological taxa in paleoecological reconstruction, differential taxonomic preservation in the fossil record has to be taken into account. Paleontologists have known the biased nature of the fossil record since Efremov's publication on taphonomy in 1940, yet many ecological models of habitats associated with hominins in paleontological and archaeological sites in Africa and elsewhere barely address the complexity of the fossil record. We use randomly sampled ungulates from modern biomes in a comparative taxonomic abundance to demonstrate how the combination of modern thanatocoenoses and taphocoenoses, when used in reference to habitat-specific biocoenosis, produce better inferences of past habitats in paleontological and archaeological sites than approaches currently used.

Paleoenvironmental implications of two relative indicator rodent taxa during the Pleistocene to Holocene transition in south‐eastern Washington state, USA

“…Ancient animal remains are often subject to taphonomic biasing and thus may provide inaccurate reflections of paleoenvironments (Andrews, ; Domínguez‐Rodrigo and Musiba, ; Fernández‐Jalvo et al ., ). It is clear, however, that not all prehistoric collections are so severely biased as to not warrant study (e.g.…”

Taphonomy and Palaeoecology of Quaternary Vertebrates: Advances in Fossil and Experimental Studies

“…It has long been established that taphonomy and palaeoecology are inseparable. A taphonomic analysis of a fossil assemblage is an essential prerequisite for palaeoecological studies, particularly for identifying the origin of faunal assemblages and potential biases in species and anatomical representation [6,[8][9][10]. In turn, palaeoecology uses fossil data to examine how organisms and environments change throughout time [11][12][13].…”