African elephant bones modified by carnivores: Implications for interpreting fossil proboscidean assemblages

Abstract

Carcasses of African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana africana) are affected by large and small carnivores which mark, move, break, and subtract bones. Bone-gnawing scavengers modify proboscidean carcasses and individual bones in patterned sequences. We summarize how scavengers modify major skeletal elements in stages which may reflect the extent of carcass utilization. The stages of modification also may be detectable in fossil proboscidean assemblages, which would potentially strengthen ecological interpretations of assemblage origins. We discuss the significance of tooth marking and breakage of bones, different bone-gnawing behaviors, variations in intensity of gnawing, and the effects of increasingly worn carnivore teeth. We demonstrate that tooth marks made by carnivores which are habitual bone-gnawing scavengers have substantially different sizes from tooth marks made by conspecifics with less worn teeth, an unexplored complication when attempting to identify taxon of scavenging carnivores in fossil proboscidean assemblages. Herein we provide a guide for identifying carnivore effects on proboscidean bones, which may partially or wholly reduce analysts’ variability in reporting frequencies of carnivore modifications in fossil proboscidean assemblages.