Carnivores and hominins contributions to the Early Pleistocene bone accumulation of Cooper's D, South Africa

Abstract

Carnivores have long been identified as one of the most important taphonomical agents of the Plio-Pleistocene hominin-bearing caves of South Africa. Cooper's D is an eroded cave deposit dated between 1.3 and 1.0 Ma and has yielded an abundant and diverse large mammal faunal assemblage. It has been previously argued that brown hyenas (Parahyaena brunnea) were the main accumulator agent. However, more recently the involvement of hominins has also been identified in the accumulation of at least a part of the assemblage. In this paper, we first describe the composition of the carnivore paleoguild from Cooper's D, which permits to highlight an important taxonomic diversity. The completeness indexes indicate good retention of bone material in our analysis. The carnivore ravaging index pointed out the relative moderate impact of carnivores in the destruction of the bone assemblage. Through skeletal part representation, mortality profiles and bone surface modifications, we argue that large felids, and especially leopards, can in fact be identified as the most probable main taphonomic agents. Moreover, we confirmed the involvement of hyenids but also canids in the accumulation and modification of the assemblage. Based on the multiple carnivore taphonomic signal, we proposed that the cave was not used as a carnivore den on a regular basis. Thus, we argue that Cooper's D faunal assemblage is the result of the independent accumulations of both hominins and carnivores.