Neotaphonomic study of two Tyto alba assemblages from Botswana: Palaeoecological implications

Linchamps, Pierre; Stoetzel, Emmanuelle; Hanon, Raphaël; Denys, Christiane

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103085

Cited by 4 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The maximum percentage of fragmentation was obtained for bat radius (34%), the most elongated bone, which is more sensitive to breakage. These observations are in keeping with data on Tyto alba, which are known to present a low fragmentation of skulls and post-cranial elements and a high preservation rate of intact bones (e.g., [14,15,36,37]).…”

Section: Fragmentationsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Our results are difficult to compare directly with other taphonomic analyses of Barn Owl pellet assemblages (Tyto alba) in varied geographical areas, which generally consider more element categories for the anatomical representation, and only for small mammals (e.g., [14,15,36,37]). However, it is interesting to note that most of them show a good preservation of "robust" bones, like mandibles, humeri, femora and tibiae, which are the elements we chose to consider and for which we observed a similar representation in small mammals.…”

Section: Anatomical Representationmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…Previous analyses of digestion traces on small vertebrate bones accumulated by barn owls have focused mainly on rodent incisors, molars and proximal femora, and are thus again difficult to compare directly with our results. Generally, Tyto alba produces low percentages and grades of digestion, with some moderate grades (e.g., [14,15,36,37]). In our study, we have shown that more or less half of the articular extremities are digested, all taxa combined (except Thecadactylus rapicauda), with a majority of light to moderate grades.…”

Section: Digestionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multi-Taxa Neo-Taphonomic Analysis of Bone Remains from Barn Owl Pellets and Cross-Validation of Observations: A Case Study from Dominica (Lesser Antilles)

et al. 2021

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Paleo- and neo-taphonomic analyses of bone assemblages rarely consider all the occurring taxa in a single study and works concerning birds of prey as accumulators of microvertebrate bone remains mostly focus on small mammals such as rodents and soricomorphs. However, raptors often hunt and consume a large range of taxa, including vertebrates such as small mammals, fishes, amphibians, squamates and birds. Bone remains of all these taxonomic groups are numerous in many paleontological and archaeological records, especially in cave deposits. To better characterize the predators at the origin of fossil and sub-fossil microvertebrate accumulations and the taphonomic history of the deposit, it is thus mandatory to conduct global and multi-taxa taphonomic approaches. The aim of this study is to provide an example of such a global approach through the investigation of a modern bone assemblage from a sample of pellets produced by the Lesser Antillean Barn Owl (Tyto insularis) in the island of Dominica. We propose a new methodology that allows us to compare different taxa (rodents, bats, squamates and birds) and to experiment with a cross-validation process using two observers for each taxonomic group to test the reliability of the taphonomic observations.

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Section: Fragmentationsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Anatomical Representationmentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Digestionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multi-Taxa Neo-Taphonomic Analysis of Bone Remains from Barn Owl Pellets and Cross-Validation of Observations: A Case Study from Dominica (Lesser Antilles)

et al. 2021

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“…In archeological and paleontological context, fossils are not always identifiable at the species level using traditional morphological characters. For instance, the smallest species of rodents such as Mus, Dendromus or Graphiurus species can be hard to identify due to higher fragmentation rate in sediments and the lack of patent specific dental or cranial characters (Linchamps et al, 2021). The task is even more complicated for remote periods for which few comparative specimens are available.…”

Section: Paleoclimate Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioclimatic inference based on mammal community using machine learning regression models: perspectives for paleoecological studies

et al. 2023

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Climate has played a significant role in shaping the distribution of mammal species across the world. Mammal community composition can therefore be used for inferring modern and past climatic conditions. Here, we develop a novel approach for bioclimatic inference using machine learning (ML) algorithms, which allows for accurate prediction of a set of climate variables based on the composition of the faunal community. The automated dataset construction process aggregates bioclimatic variables with modern species distribution maps, and includes multiple taxonomic ranks as explanatory variables for the predictions. This yields a large dataset that can be used to produce highly accurate predictions. Various ML algorithms that perform regression have been examined. To account for spatial dependence in our data, we employed a geographical block validation approach for model validation and selection. The random forest (RF) outperformed the other evaluated algorithms. Ultimately, we used unseen modern mammal surveys to assess the high predictive performances and extrapolation abilities achieved by our trained models. This contribution introduces a framework and methodology to construct models for developing models based on neo-ecological data, which could be utilized for paleoclimate applications in the future. The study aimed to satisfy specific criteria for interpreting both modern and paleo faunal assemblages, including the ability to generate reliable climate predictions from faunal lists with varying taxonomic resolutions, without the need for published wildlife inventory data from the study area. This method demonstrates the versatility of ML techniques in climate modeling and highlights their promising potential for applications in the fields of archaeology and paleontology.

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“…They generate impressive numbers of skeletal elements and data on identified taxa, representation, fragmentation and digestion, as well as associated pictures (e.g. Andrews 1990;Souttou et al 2012;Lloveras et al 2014;Fernandez-Jalvo et al 2016;Campmas et al 2018;Fernandez and Montalvo 2017;Montalvo and Fernández 2019;Lebreton et al 2020;Linchamps et al 2021), which are generally not entered into official institutions collections, while all the samples and results of these studies constitute original reference material and improve future possibilities of taphonomic work. Second, neotaphonomic vertebrate collections may result from experiments on bones, which involve the use of datasets and precise protocols.…”

Section: What Is a Vertebrate Neotaphonomic Collection?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Importance and role of neotaphonomic collections: the example of microvertebrate and experimental collection management

Christiane,

Emmanuelle,

Pierre

et al. 2023

Historical Biology

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The development of taphonomy has improved our knowledge of site formation and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. It has also stimulated many neotaphonomic analyses that bring clues to some of the alterations and modifications processes of fossilisation and accumulations. This article aims to show that such neotaphonomic analyses and experiments, by generating a lot of valuable material and associate data, need to be integrated into official collections for future preservation. We will focus here upon two examples of neotaphonomic collections: 1 owl pellet microvertebrate collections and 2 collections resulting from experimental work (simulation and monitoring). We detail some problems for incorporating such new type of materials in Museums and some requirements for their curation. In the era of open science, there is a need to improve the management and curation of such unconventional collections to incorporate them into future classical comparative research, training and education as well as exhibitions.

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Neotaphonomic study of two Tyto alba assemblages from Botswana: Palaeoecological implications

Cited by 4 publications

References 44 publications

Multi-Taxa Neo-Taphonomic Analysis of Bone Remains from Barn Owl Pellets and Cross-Validation of Observations: A Case Study from Dominica (Lesser Antilles)

Multi-Taxa Neo-Taphonomic Analysis of Bone Remains from Barn Owl Pellets and Cross-Validation of Observations: A Case Study from Dominica (Lesser Antilles)

Bioclimatic inference based on mammal community using machine learning regression models: perspectives for paleoecological studies

Importance and role of neotaphonomic collections: the example of microvertebrate and experimental collection management

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