title: Lions as Bone Accumulators? Paleontological and Ecological Implications of a Modern Bone Assemblage from Olduvai Gorge.
abstract: Analytic models have been developed to reconstruct early hominin behaviour, especially their subsistence patterns, revealed mainly through taphonomic analyses of archaeofaunal assemblages. Taphonomic research is used to discern which agents (carnivores, humans or both) generate the bone assemblages recovered at archaeological sites. Taphonomic frameworks developed during the last decades show that the only large-sized carnivores in African biomes able to create bone assemblages are leopards and hyenas. A carnivore-made bone assemblage located in the short-grassland ecological unit of the Serengeti (within Olduvai Gorge) was studied. Taphonomic analyses of this assemblage including skeletal part representation, bone density, breakage patterns and anatomical distribution of tooth marks, along with an ecological approach to the prey selection made by large carnivores of the Serengeti, were carried out. The results show that this bone assemblage may be the first lion-accumulated assemblage documented, although other carnivores (namely spotted hyenas) may have also intervened through postdepositional ravaging. This first faunal assemblage potentially created by lions constitutes a new framework for neotaphonomic studies. Since lions may accumulate carcasses under exceptional circumstances, such as those documented at the site reported here, this finding may have important consequences for interpretations of early archaeological and paleontological sites, which provide key information about human evolution.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Geología, Geografía y Medio Ambiente, Universidad de Alcalá, Edificio de Ciencias. Campus Externo. Ctra. A-II-km 33,600 C. P. 28871 Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Spain.|Instituto de Evolución en África (IDEA), Museo de los Orígenes, Plaza de San Andrés 2, 28005, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Mari Carmen
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Arriaza
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Evolución en África (IDEA), Museo de los Orígenes, Plaza de San Andrés 2, 28005, Madrid, Spain.|Departamento de Prehistoria, Universidad Complutense, Prof. Aranguren s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Domínguez-Rodrigo
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Evolución en África (IDEA), Museo de los Orígenes, Plaza de San Andrés 2, 28005, Madrid, Spain.|Departamento de Prehistoria, Universidad Complutense, Prof. Aranguren s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yravedra
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Evolución en África (IDEA), Museo de los Orígenes, Plaza de San Andrés 2, 28005, Madrid, Spain.|Museo Arqueológico Regional de la Comunidad de Madrid, Plaza de las Bernardas s/n, 28801, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Spain.
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Baquedano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001106:Archaeology / Q000379:methods; D005075:Biological Evolution; D015519:Bone Density / Q000502:physiology*; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000502:physiology*; D004463:Ecology; D004777:Environment; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005580:Fossils; D015186:Hominidae / Q000502:physiology; D045968:Hyaenidae / Q000502:physiology; D008045:Lions / Q000502:physiology*; D010163:Paleontology / Q000379:methods; D046009:Panthera / Q000502:physiology; D013636:Tanzania; D014070:Tooth / Q000502:physiology