RT Journal Article
T1 Hyaenids, felids and canids as bone accumulators: Does the natural history of extant species support zooarchaeological inferences?
A1 Palomares, Francisco
A1 Ruiz Villar, H.
A1 Morales González, A.
A1 Calzada Samperio, Javier
A1 Román Sancho, Jacinto
A1 Rivilla, Juan Carlos
A1 Revilla, E.
A1 Fernández Gil, A.
A1 Delibes Castro, Miguel
AB Mammalian carnivores may be important agents of prehistoric bone accumulations. Taphonomic analysesof bone assemblages used for specific assignment usually include information on feeding, breeding,denning and even defecating ecology of extant species. Here, we review literature for the Hyaenidae,Felidae and Canidae families of carnivores, focusing on the ecological and behavioural traits that arecommonly used as criteria to assign bone accumulations to specific carnivores, and whether thesecorrespond to the present behaviour and ecology of extant species. We found a total of 93 records where12 species (9 extant species) of these families were considered as bone accumulators in archaeozoologicalsites. Hyaenidae was the group most often cited, followed by Felidae and Canidae. Crocutacrocuta was by far the species most often cited as a bone accumulator. Most bone deposits assigned tocarnivores (84.9%) were found in underground cavities, and to a lesser extent in non-cave deposits(15.1%). The use assigned to the sites was mainly as a den (29.5%) or breeding den (29.5%), followed byprey depot (16.2%), feeding shelter (12.4%), and to a lesser extent a hunting place (7.6%), with someremarkable differences among families. Coprolites were also found in 53.8% of cases.The behaviour of present hyenas may be similar to that of prehistoric ones as they commonly useunderground dens, defecate inside of them and frequently accumulate prey remains. On the other hand,even though present canids are more often recorded than felids using underground dens and accumulatingprey, the latter are more often recorded as prehistoric bone accumulators than the former. Thebehaviour of only one present species of canid (V. vulpes) and other a felid (P. pardus) matches the onepresumed for prehistoric individuals of such species in relation to bone and scat accumulation. The roleof the remaining species as bone and scat accumulator agents in prehistoric sites remains questionabledue to differences in their present behaviour. Therefore, many assignments of bone accumulation tospecific carnivores are based on assumptions, which did not coincide with the present natural history ofthe species. Our review also highlights the absence of records of small species as prehistoric boneaccumulators.
PB Elsevier
SN 0277-3791
SN 1873-457X (electrónico)
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/21326
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/21326
LA eng
NO Palomares, F., Ruiz-Villar, H., Morales-González, A., Calzada, J., Román, J., Rivilla, J. C., Revilla, E., Fernández-Gil, A., & Delibes, M. (2022). Hyaenids, felids and canids as bone accumulators: Does the natural history of extant species support zooarchaeological inferences? In Quaternary Science Reviews (Vol. 284, p. 107459). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107459
NO We thank Cuauhtemoc Ch avez and Ana Carolina Srbek for theirunpublished information on jaguars. HRV is a beneficiary of a PhDscholarship “Severo Ochoa” from the Regional Government ofPrincipality of Asturias, and AMG was supported by the PredoctoralFellowship PRE2018-086102.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 1 jun 2026