Life tables and Leslie matrices for mammalian cohorts in different paleobiological contexts during the Pleistocene

Palaeoecology of the Southern chamois from Valdegoba Cave (Burgos, Spain) and its exploitation by the Neanderthals

“…Consequently, considering realistic balanced sex-ratio at birth (e.g. 1:1 in this study), the fecundity rates for each age interval must be divided by a factor 2 in order to count all the individuals of the life table (Gaillard et al 1998;Monchot et al 2012;Fernandez et al 2017).…”

“…These tables are built using different demographic parameters (see Fernandez et al 2017), where: 'x' is the age interval, which is one year in the present analysis. In zooarchaeological studies, there is often confusion or a lack of agreement in the definition of the terms 'age interval' and 'age class' (in months, year or any time interval).…”

“…developed by Hood (2010). Here, we will not delve into different matrix formulations as a step-by-step procedure has already been described at length with case studies for different species in various palaeobiological contexts with this model (Fernandez et al 2017). As an example, the following matrix (A) of 13 age intervals will depend on the life table fecundity m x distributed in the first row (m 0 , m 1 , m 2 , etc.)…”

“…Pearls & Miner 1935). Whereas the traditional life tables were applied in life sciences from living individuals (see Deevey 1947), in palaeobiology the set of dead individuals in each age interval represents the main source of information of the different cohorts of a population (Kurtén 1953a(Kurtén , 1953b(Kurtén , 1954(Kurtén , 1983Van Valen 1963, 1965Voorhies 1969;Koike & Ohtaishi 1987;Fernandez & Legendre 2003;Mihlbachler 2003;Fernandez et al 2006;Fernandez & Boulbes 2010;Monchot et al 2012;Price et al 2016;Fernandez et al 2017;Pérez-Pérez et al 2021). In palaeobiological context, life tables are used from a long-term perspective, using individuals of all ages that could belong to different cohorts considering that the fossil record is a random representation of the individuals in a population reflecting its structure.…”

“…As an extension of the life tables, other mathematical tools, such as Leslie-Lewis matrices or the Weibull model, have also been used in different palaeobiological contexts to make projections of key demographic parameters (Fernandez & Boulbes 2010;Monchot et al 2012;Rodríguez-Gómez et al 2013, 2014a, 2016a, 2016b, 2017c, 2020, 2022Martín-González et al 2016, 2019Domingo et al 2017;Fernandez et al 2017).…”