Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-rkxrd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-23T09:27:46.838Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Spiral Fractures and Bone Pseudotools at Paleontological Sites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Thomas P. Myers ,
Michael R. Voorhies  and
R. George Corner
Thomas P. Myers
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska State Museum, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588
Michael R. Voorhies
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska State Museum, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588
R. George Corner
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska State Museum, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Spiral ("green bone") breakage has been suggested as an indicator of human activity by some workers. Our examination of broken ungulate long bones from six paleontological localities in western Nebraska, however, shows that such fractures commonly occurred in the Miocene and Pliocene, long before the advent of man in North America. Pseudotools also occur frequently in these sites. We postulate that spiral breakage, including the production of pseudotools, may be due to trampling by animals.

Our study demonstrates that neither spiral breakage nor gross morphology, alone or in combination, is diagnostic of human activity. Problematical examples must be accepted or rejected wholly upon the basis of patterned wear on the supposed tools.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , July 1980 , pp. 483 - 490
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1980 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Behrensmeyer, Anna K. 1978 Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering. Paleobiology 4(2):150-162.Google Scholar
Bonnichsen, Robson 1973 Some operational aspects of human and animal bone alteration. In Mammalian osteo-archeology: North America, edited by Gilbert, B. Miles, pp. 9-25. Missouri Archaeological Society, Columbia, Missouri.Google Scholar
Brain, C. K. 1967 Bone weathering and the problem of bone pseudotools. South African Journal of Science 32:1-11.Google Scholar
Corner, R. George 1977 A Late Pleistocene-Holocene vertebrate fauna from Red Willow County, Nebraska. Transactions Nebraska Academy Sciences 4:77-93.Google Scholar
Frison, George C. 1974 Archeology of the Casper Site. In The Casper site—a Hell Gap bison kill on the High Plains, edited by Frison, G. C., pp. 1-113. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Frison, George C. 1978 Prehistoric hunters of the High Plains. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C, Wilson, Michael, and Wilson, D. J. 1976 Fossil bison and artifacts from an Early Altithermal period arroyo trap in Wyoming. American Antiquity 41:28-57.Google Scholar
Irving, W. N., and Harington, C. R. 1973 Upper Pleistocene radiocarbon-dated artifacts from the northern Yukon. Science 179(4071):335-340.Google Scholar
Miller, George J. 1969 A study of cuts, grooves, and other marks on recent and fossil bone. 1. Animal tooth marks. Tebiwa 12(1):20-26.Google Scholar
Miller, George J. 1975 A study of cuts, grooves and other marks on recent and fossil bone. II. Weathering cracks, fractures, splinters and other similar natural phenomena. In Lithic technology, making and using stone tools, edited by Earl, Swanson, pp. 211-226. Mouton, The Hague.Google Scholar
Muller, A. H. 1963 Lehrbuch der Paldozoologie. Band 1, Auflage 2.Google Scholar
Myers, Thomas P. 1977 Man-made artifacts from the Red Willow gravel pits. Transactions Nebraska Academy Sciences 4:9-12.Google Scholar
Sadek-Kooros, Hind 1972 Primitive bone fracturing: a method of research. American Antiquity 37:369-382.Google Scholar
Saunders, Jeffrey John 1977 Late Pleistocene vertebrates of the western Ozark highland. Uiinois State Museum fleports of Investigations No. 33.Google Scholar
Schultz, C. B., and Martin, L. D. 1970 Quaternary mammalian sequence in the central Great Plains. In Pleistocene and recent environmentsof the central Great Plains, edited by Dort, W. Jr. and Jones, J. K. Jr. , pp. 341-353. Department of Geology, University of Kansas Special Publication No. 3.Google Scholar
Schultz, C. B., Schultz, M. R., and Martin, L. D. 1970 A new tribe of saber-toothed cats (Barbourofelini) from the Pliocene of North America. Bulletin University of Nebraska State Museum 9(1):1-31.Google Scholar
Schultz, C. B. and Stout, T. M. 1941 Guide for a field conference on the Tertiary and Pleistocene of Nebraska. Special Publication 1. University of Nebraska State Museum.Google Scholar
Schultz, C. B. and Stout, T. M. 1948 Pleistocene mammals and terraces in the Great Plains. Bulletin Geological Society of America 59:553-588.Google Scholar
Schultz, C. B., and Tanner, L. G. 1957 Medial Pleistocene fossil vertebrate localities in Nebraska. Bulletin University of Nebraska State Museum 4(4):59-81.Google Scholar
Sutcliffe, Antony J. 1970 Spotted hyena: crusher, gnawer, digester and collector of bones. Nature 227(5263):1110-1113.Google Scholar