Jarod M. Hutson’s research while affiliated with University of Nevada, Reno and other places

The paper provides a guide for identifying carnivore effects on proboscidean bones, which may partially or wholly reduce analysts’ variability in reporting frequencies of carnivore modifications in fossil proboscidean assemblages.

The paper is a guide to identifying carnivore effects on proboscidean bones, which may help analysts quantify and characterise modifications in fossil assemblages.

Carcasses of African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana africana) are affected by large and small carnivores which mark, move, break, and subtract bones. Bone-gnawing scavengers modify proboscidean carcasses and individual bones in patterned sequences. We summarize how scavengers modify major skeletal elements in stages which may reflect the extent of carcass utilization. The stages of modification also may be detectable in fossil proboscidean assemblages, which would potentially strengthen ecological interpretations of assemblage origins. We discuss the significance of tooth marking and breakage of bones, different bone-gnawing behaviors, variations in intensity of gnawing, and the effects of increasingly worn carnivore teeth. We demonstrate that tooth marks made by carnivores which are habitual bone-gnawing scavengers have substantially different sizes from tooth marks made by conspecifics with less worn teeth, an unexplored complication when attempting to identify taxon of scavenging carnivores in fossil proboscidean assemblages. Herein we provide a guide for identifying carnivore effects on proboscidean bones, which may partially or wholly reduce analysts’ variability in reporting frequencies of carnivore modifications in fossil proboscidean assemblages.

The poster describes the Smithsonian’s National Taphonomic Reference Collection (NTRC), a new resource that will provide archeologists and paleobiologists with comparative materials to help interpret taphonomic evidence preserved in bone assemblages.

Clovis-era subsistence varied from site to site and region to region, but large mammals numerically dominate at archaeological sites with food remains. Plant remains are extremely scarce in Clovis sites. The lack of specialized processing and storage technology suggests seeds and nuts were not prominent in the diet, as they became in later times. Sites dated to a possible proto-Clovis phase, 1,000–3,000 years older than the generally accepted age of Clovis, also contain mostly or exclusively large-mammal remains. Many (perhaps most or all) of the largest animals were probably killed and butchered by Late Glacial foragers; they were not found dead and scavenged by people. Proboscidean carcass utilization by Clovis butchers was often incomplete, because Clovis foraging bands were small in number, very mobile, and most likely could predict where to find vulnerable prey. © 2014 by Kelly E. Graf, Caroline V. Ketron, and Michael R. Waters. All rights reserved.

Ungulates often gnaw on animal bones, antlers, horns, and ivory in order to maintain certain nutritional requirements. The resulting modifications to bones and other skeletal elements have been variously described and reported, but are largely absent from most taphonomic reference works. Previous accounts of such gnawing behaviors have been restricted to smaller ungulates. Here we provide detailed description of large ungulates gnawing on bones from similarly sized animals, namely giraffe, camel, and cattle, from Africa, Australia, and North America. Large ungulates will often select fresh bones for gnawing, but will also target dry and weathered bones. Surface modifications are variable, ranging from tooth depressions, punctures, and grooves, to scooping out damage, polishing, and splintering. Similar features are prevalent in carnivore- and porcupine-gnawed bone assemblages, but the effects of large ungulate gnawing can be readily distinguished from those taphonomic agents. Ungulate gnawing may also vary in relation to body size, in that smaller ungulates impact skeletal elements differently than larger ungulates.

Here I present a neotaphonomic account of natural bone accumulations that have resulted from carnivore serial predation at Ngamo Pan, a vast complex of seasonal water holes located in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Reconstructing the taphonomic histories of faunal assemblages from open-air archaeological sites is burdened with a host of interpretive complications, and this study is offered as a referential means for evaluating instances where stone tools and bone accumulations are associated in apparent archaeological contexts. While the presence of stone tools implies some involvement on the part of humans, open-air sites near water would also have served as prime locations for serial predation by large carnivores to ambush prey—a situation that, over time, can mimic archaeological bone accumulations. The taphonomic and zooarchaeological signatures of carnivore serial predation at Ngamo Pan show marked similarities with the open-air faunal accumulation from Kalkbank, a late Pleistocene site in Limpopo Province, South Africa, located along the margins of a relict pan. Many potential archaeological sites within the interior of southern Africa dating to the Middle Stone Age are known from open-air settings near permanent or ephemeral bodies of water, and the ability to decipher between hominin and non-hominin carnivore involvement with bone accumulations is paramount in determining the hunting and scavenging behaviors of our early ancestors. As much of our understanding of hominin subsistence during the Middle Stone Age is drawn from coastal cave locations, this study is intended to encourage a broadening of our perspective on the taphonomic histories of faunal accumulations dating to the Middle Stone Age by incorporating supplementary evidence provided by these open-air sites.