Biostratinomy applied to the interpretation of scavenger activity in paleoecosystems

Abstract

Palaeontological sites can be a significant sample of the palaeocommunity to which they belonged, or represent effects of animal consumption. A general methodological study has been designed to contrast the pre-depositional characteristics of any anthropological or natural thanatocenosis and taphocoenosis/oryctocoenosis. A biostratinomic study of the carcass association scattered throughout Doñana Biological Reserve (Huelva, Spain) was performed to determine whether there are general patterns that can be applied to the taphonomic study of archaeological/palaeontological sites. All these results have shown that palaeobiological interpretations need biostratinomical studies to interpret the past, and this work has presented the analyses of an organic deposit in a natural ecosystem. The differences with other ecosystems located in different latitudes remain to be determined in order to define a general model to explain the formation of bone assemblages. The main objective of this paper is to apply the biostratinomic results of the Doñana Biological Reserve (DBR), an example of a Mediterranean ecosystem, in the interpretation of Venta Micena, a paleontological Early Pleistocene site located inOrce (Granada, Spain).