Whose talon is this? A manual for the identification of ungual phalanges of European birds of prey: Falcons and owls

Abstract

This paper is the first of two scheduled publications for this project. It contains a dichotomous key to the identification of the ungual phalanges of European owls and falcons; the second part will contain accipitrids. The manual(s) will facilitate the work of zooarchaeologists and palaeontologists, especially since comparative specimens in osteological collections are often difficult to access and/or incomplete. This, in turn, will indirectly contribute to a more in‐depth interpretation of zooarcheological materials, because bird talons were used to produce symbolic objects and decorations in different archeological periods and in various geographical areas.

Whose talon is this? A manual for the identification of ungual phalanges of European accipitrid birds of prey

“…The goal of this study is to present the first manual for the identification of ungual phalanges of European accipitrid birds of prey. This is a continuation of our first paper that includes a manual for European owls and falcons (Wertz et al, In press).…”

“…Being sure that an ungual phalanx belongs to the accipitrid bird, one can start with this manual. In case of doubt, the identification can be started from the preliminary part of the manual (Wertz et al, In press), which includes the division into owls, falcons, Pandion , and accipitrid birds of prey.…”

Songs of the past ‐ papers of the 10th ICAZ Bird Working Group Meeting

“…Several excellent guides and papers exist on identifying bird bones for certain groups and geographic regions, but there are still important gaps to fill. Krzysztof Wertz and colleagues (Wertz et al, 2023) have made a valuable contribution to this issue with their identification key for ungual phalanges of European owls and falcons. A second paper with an identification key for ungual phalanges of Accipitridae has been published separately (Bochenski et al, 2023) but deserves mention here as well.…”