A taphonomic investigation of small vertebrate accumulations produced by the snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) and its implications for fossil studies

Abstract

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Prey size as a critical factor for bird bone taphonomy in Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) pellets

“…Previous work already foresaw that Eagle Owl ethology would influence the modifications observed on prey bones, as differential treatment of prey according to their size is noted 35,55 . The present analysis confirms the previous studies that relied on the importance of prey size when facing archaeological assemblages and shows clear differences when tracking bone damage on different prey 1,43–45 . The fact that an important number of remains are affected by modifications other than fragmentation is not surprising, as the specimens came from pellets.…”

“…Among these, prey size is one of the main variables that would result in differential prey treatment. This variable has previously been introduced by some scholars 35,43–45 who have observed many differences in prey modifications depending on the prey size.…”

Review of the Actualistic Taphonomy of Small Mammals Ingested by South American Predators. Its Importance in the Interpretation of the Fossil Record

“…With respect to the latter, it has been already stated that actualistic taphonomic studies dealing with non-mammal vertebrates are scarce. modifications than in previous papers that analyzed samples produced by this owl (Royer et al, 2019). In this case, multitaxa accumulation studies help suggest a new cate-38 gory for this predator.…”

“…There are numerous papers on actualistic studies for the northern hemisphere; thus, there is currently a fairly broad picture of the modifications that different predators produce on the bones of small mammals (e.g., Andrews, 1990; Fernández-Jalvo and Andrews, 1992;Laudet and Selva, 2005;Lloveras et al, 2008;Esteban-Nadal et al, 2010;Denys, 2011;Souttou et al, 2012;Fernández-Jalvo et al, 2016;Campmas et al, 2018;Denys et al, 2018;Royer et al, 2019). Samples of small fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds were only occasionally evaluated; in those cases, an alternative methodology was used to better fit the morphology of the bones of these microvertebrates (Bochenski et al, 1993(Bochenski et al, , 2009Bochenski and Tomek, 1994;Pinto Llona and Andrews, 1999;Castillo et al, 2001;Bochenski and Tornberg, 2003;Bochenski, 2005;Broughton et al, 2006;Bailon, 2011;Russ and Jones, 2011;Guillaud et al, 2017).…”

“…In most papers, all the taxa recorded in the samples are mentioned but only those of mammals and, particularly, rodents, are highlighted and adjusted taxonomically whereas the rest are only classified up to the Order or Class level. A few studies evaluate other taxa besides rodents; that is, mainly amphibians, reptiles and birds (Fernández et al, 2009b;Montalvo and Tejerina, 2009;Montalvo et al, 2011;Fernández, 2012;Quintana, 2015;Denys et al, 2018;Royer et al, 2019). As mentioned above, it is noteworthy that these groups of vertebrates are treated according to their own methodology of evaluation (Bochenski et al, 1993(Bochenski et al, , 2009Bochenski and Tomek, 1994;Pinto Llona and Andrews, 1999;Castillo et al, 2001;Bochenski and Tornberg, 2003;Bochenski, 2005), which should be put to test with more samples of South American fauna.…”