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The order in which hominids and carnivores had access to Plio-Pleistocene bone assemblages has defied interpretation despite attempts to decipher their sequence from element frequencies or by comparing ancient butchery marks with modern ones. Data from two simulations in which experimental stone-tool butchery of long bones occurred after carcasses were defleshed by large free-ranging East African carnivores are here compared to data from the FLK Zinjanthropus bone assemblage from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. One experimental sample simulated two stages of tissue removal; defleshing of long bones by carnivores, followed by tool-assisted flesh-scrap removal and marrow extraction. A second simulated three stages of tissue removal; the first two stages the same as the first sample, plus a third stage in which bone-crunching carnivores ravaged the remains. Carnivore ravaging is demonstrated to result in additional tooth marks on epiphyseal fragments, but does not significantly alter the incidence of defleshing tooth marks or butchery marks on midshafts. The Zinjanthropus sample is similar to the three-stage simulation in its proportion of epiphyseal relative to midshaft fragments, and for the incidence of midshafts bearing tooth marks and butchery marks. © 1998 Academic Press Limited.
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Information on the number of carnivore taxa that were involved with archaeological bone assemblages is pertinent to questions of site formation, hominid and carnivore competition for carcasses and the sequence of hominid and carnivore activity at sites. A majority of early archaeological bone assemblages bear evidence that both hominids and carnivores removed flesh and/or marrow from the bones. Whether flesh specialists (felids) or bone-crunchers (hyaenas), or both, fed upon the carcasses is crucial for deciphering the timing of hominid involvement with the assemblages. Here we present an initial attempt to differentiate the tooth mark signature inflicted on bones by a single carnivore species versus multiple carnivore taxa. Quantitative data on carnivore tooth pits, those resembling a tooth crown or a cusp, are presented for two characteristics: the area of the marks in millimetres, and the shape as determined by the ratio of the major axis to the minor axis of the mark. Tooth pits from bones modified by extant East African carnivores and latex impressions of tooth pits from extinct carnivore species are compared to those in the FLK Zinjanthropus bone assemblage. Data on tooth mark shape indicate greater variability in the Zinj sample than is exhibited by any individual extant or extinct carnivore species in the comparative sample. Data on tooth mark area demonstrate that bone density is related to the size of marks. Taken together, these data support the inference that felids defleshed bones in the Zinj assemblage and that hyaenas had final access to any grease or tissues that remained. © 2001 Academic Press.
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Laetoli, a paleoanthropological site in Northern Tanzania, is perhaps best known for its famous fossil hominid footprints that were discovered by Mary Leakey and her co-workers in 1978. The site not only preserves the hominid footprints but also trackways, which provide a snapshot of Pliocene faunal communities from East Africa and their inferred environments. Unlike the hominid footprints at site G, which have received tremendous attention, the animal trackways, especially at Localities 7, 8 and 10 have been neglected and are fast disappearing. In this paper, we discuss animal tracks at a newly discovered exposure and provide preliminary data on the tracks at this exposure and other sites. We also discuss the importance of the animal trackways as ecological indicators, which we have investigated as part of ongoing research and conservation efforts initiated by the Tanzania Field School in Paleoanthropology and the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) Tanzania Semester Abroad programs.
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- Journal Article (4)
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Between 1900 and 1999
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Between 1990 and 1999
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- 1998 (2)
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Between 1990 and 1999
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- Between 2000 and 2026 (2)
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- English (4)