Preservation of bird bones: erosion versus digestion by owls

Who ate the birds: the taphonomy of Sarakenos Cave, Greece

“…Traces of digestion in Sarakenos Cave correspond well with those made by owls (Bochenski 2005;Bochenski and Tomek 1997;Bochenski et al 1998). They are observed on articular ends of long bones and on the surface of breakages, whereas shafts are not affected.…”

“…Traces of digestion on proximal and distal epiphyses and also on diaphysis can be in the form of pits, holes, or perforations with rounded edges; the surface of breakage affected by digestion is also smooth, thinned, and rounded-it may look like a piece of plastic where the edges have melted in heat (Bochenski and Tomek 1997;Bochenski 2005). Breakages of the shaft were considered altered through digestion even if only their portions were rounded because it may well have happened that a part of the bone broke off after the bone had been deposited.…”

“…Breakages of the shaft were considered altered through digestion even if only their portions were rounded because it may well have happened that a part of the bone broke off after the bone had been deposited. Although the effects of soil corrosion are similar to digestion, they can be distinguished from digestion by their lack of specific localization on the bone-corrosion can be found all over the bone, whereas digestion affects mostly articular ends and breakage surfaces (Andrews 1990;Bochenski and Tomek 1997;Fernandez-Jalvo and Andrews 1992).…”

A new large barn owl (Aves, Strigiformes, Tytonidae) from the Middle Pleistocene of Sicily, Italy, and its taphonomical significance

“…3(1,2)); those features are in accordance to that described by Andrews (1990) in the food remains of the extant T. alba. Following the conclusions of Andrews (1990), Bocheński (1997b) and Bocheński and Tomek (1997), the other species of Strigiformes found as fossils in the "Elephas falconeri FC", e.g. Asio otus and Athene trinacriae, had to produce much more marks on the bones, of which there is no evidence in the studied material.…”

“…It is particularly true in the case of the Strigiformes, in which the hunting, ingestive and digestive processes caused no or scarce modifications on the skeletal elements found in their pellets (Andrews, 1990;Bocheński, 1997b;Bocheński and Tomek, 1997;Fernández-Jalvo, 1995). After the analysis of a big sample of pellets and scats of both nocturnal and diurnal raptors and mammal carnivores, Andrews (1990) identified different kinds of modifications of the small mammal bones.…”