The barn owl as an accumulator of bone remains in central western Argentina: multi-taxa neo-taphonomic approach and implications for Holocene contexts

Facundo Sesto Rubini, Julián Mignino, Nicolás M Guardia, Agustín Zarco, Pablo Teta, Agustina A Ojeda, José Manuel López
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Abstract

Barn owls are the most widely distributed group of owls in the world and are among the most common accumulators of small vertebrate remains at archeological and paleontological sites. Despite its importance as a bone remains accumulator and predictor of paleoenvironmental conditions due to its generalist habits, the vertebrate prey of this raptor has been scarcely studied from an ecological community perspective, especially considering the diverse range of prey it captures. Archeological, paleontological, and taphonomic studies typically reveal taxon-specific patterns, focusing primarily on small rodents. In order to overcome this problem, we studied an assemblage of vertebrate bones from barn owl pellets in the central Monte Desert of Argentina. Our analysis included the full range of prey taxa, including rodents, marsupials, birds, and reptiles, addressed from both an ecological and neo-taphonomic perspective. We compare the taxonomic and taphonomic findings with those from regional small vertebrate records obtained from various sampling types over the past 50 years to explore recent environmental changes within the Anthropocene. The assemblage of small vertebrate prey presented here comprises five species of cricetids, one species from the Caviidae family, and at least one ctenomyid rodent species. Additionally, the assemblage includes one species of didelphid marsupial, one reptile species, and at least six passeriform bird species that belong to separate families. The overall taphonomic trends are consistent with the typical barn owl pattern. However, our analysis identified a larger percentage of postcranial elements exhibiting signs of digestion compared to pellet-derived vertebrate bone assemblages previously documented. Furthermore, it is important to note that a significant proportion of avian bone fragments exhibit distinct signs of digestion.
作为阿根廷中西部骨骼遗骸积累者的仓鸮:多塔新分类法及其对全新世背景的影响
蝙蝠鸮是世界上分布最广的鸮类,也是考古学和古生物学遗址中最常见的小型脊椎动物遗骸积累者之一。尽管蝙蝠鸮作为骨骼遗骸积累者和古环境条件预测者具有重要意义,但从生态群落的角度来看,这种猛禽的脊椎动物猎物却很少被研究,特别是考虑到它捕捉的猎物种类繁多。考古学、古生物学和岩石学研究通常揭示的是分类群的特定模式,主要侧重于小型啮齿类动物。为了克服这个问题,我们研究了阿根廷中部蒙特沙漠地区枭鸮粪便中的脊椎动物骨骼组合。我们的分析涵盖了所有猎物类群,包括啮齿类、有袋类、鸟类和爬行类,并从生态学和新动物分类学的角度进行了探讨。我们将分类学和移形学的研究结果与过去50年中通过各种取样类型获得的地区小型脊椎动物记录进行了比较,以探索人类世近期的环境变化。本文所展示的小型脊椎动物猎物组合包括五种蟋蟀科动物、一种豚鼠科动物和至少一种栉水母目啮齿动物。此外,该动物群还包括一种有袋类动物、一种爬行类动物和至少六种属于不同科的雀形目鸟类。总体的变形趋势与典型的谷仓鸮模式一致。不过,与以前记录的来自颗粒的脊椎动物骨骼集合体相比,我们的分析发现了更大比例的颅后元素,显示出消化的迹象。此外,值得注意的是,相当一部分鸟类骨骼碎片有明显的消化痕迹。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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