Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-9k27k Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-13T12:08:49.171Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A guide for differentiating mammalian carnivore taxa responsible for gnaw damage to herbivore limb bones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Gary Haynes
Gary Haynes*
Affiliation:
National Museum of Natural History, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Large cats, canids, bears, and hyenas create distinctive types of damage when they gnaw bones. This paper describes the diagnostic characteristics of damage done by each taxon to femora and tibiae of herbivores whose body weights are 300 kg or more. Pleistocene and Recent fossil collections that include gnawed bones might provide data on the presence of carnivores whose own remains are not found in the collections. Information might also be gained about predator and scavenger utilization of prey carcasses, often a reflection of prey vulnerability or availability in past communities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , Spring 1983 , pp. 164 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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

Literature Cited

Binford, L. 1981. Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bonnichsen, R. 1973. Some operational aspects of human and animal bone alteration. Pp. 9–25. In: Gilbert, B. M., ed. Mammalian Osteo-Archeology: North America. Archeol. Soc., Columbia.Google Scholar
Bromlei, F. G. 1973. Bears of the South Far-East of the USSR. Indian Nat. Sci. Documentation Centre, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Buckland, W. 1824. Reliquiae Diluvianae; or, Observations on the Organic Remains Contained in Caves, Fissures, and Diluvial Gravel, and on Other Geological Phenomena, Attesting the Action of a Universal Deluge. John Murray, London.Google Scholar
Buskirk, S. W. and Gipson, P. S. 1978. Characteristics of wolf attack on moose in Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska. Arctic. 31(4):499–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cinq-Mars, J. 1979. Bluefish Cave I: a late Pleistocene eastern Beringian cave deposit in the northern Yukon. Can. J. Archaeol. 3:1–32.Google Scholar
Coutourier, M. A. J. 1954. L'Ours Brun. Grenoble. Publ. by author. 904 pp.Google Scholar
Guthrie, R. D. 1980. Bison and man in North America. Can. J. Anthropol. 1(1):55–73.Google Scholar
Haynes, G. 1980. Evidence of carnivore gnawing on Pleistocene and Recent mammalian bones. Paleobiology. 6(3):341–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, G. 1981. Bone modifications and skeletal disturbances by natural agencies: studies in North America. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Catholic Univ. America, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Haynes, G. 1982. Utilization and skeletal disturbances of North American prey carcasses. Arctic. 35(2):266–281.Google Scholar
Herrero, S. 1978. A comparison of some features of the evolution, ecology, and behavior of black and grizzly/brown bears. Carnivore. 1(1):7–17.Google Scholar
Kruuk, H. 1972. The Spotted Hyaena. Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Kurtén, Bj. 1967. Pleistocene bears of North America. II. Genus Arctodus, Short-faced bears. Acta Zool. Fennica. 117.Google Scholar
Kurtén, Bj. and Anderson, E. 1980. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia Univ. Press, New York.Google Scholar
Magoun, A. 1976. Summer scavenging activity in northeastern Alaska. Unpublished M.Sc. thesis, Univ. Alaska, College, Alaska.Google Scholar
Martin, P. S. and Guilday, J. E. 1967. A bestiary for Pleistocene biologists. Pp. 1–62. In: Martin, P. S. and Wright, H. E., eds. Pleistocene Extinctions: The Search for a Cause. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Mech, L. D. 1970. The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species. Natur. Hist. Press, Garden City, N.Y.Google Scholar
Miller, G. J. 1969. A study of cuts, grooves, and other marks on recent and fossil bone. I. Animal tooth marks. Tebiwa. 12(1):20–26.Google Scholar
P'ei, W.-C. 1938. Les rôles des animaux et des causes naturelles dans la cassure des os. Palaeontologica Sinica, N.S. D. No. 7.Google Scholar
Schaller, G. B. 1972. The Serengeti Lion: A Study in Predator-Prey Relations. Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Zapfe, H. 1939. Lebensspuren der eiszeitlichen Hohlenhyane. Die urgeschichtliche Bedeutung der Lebensspuren knochenfressender Raubtiere. Palaeobiologica. 7:111–146.Google Scholar