Abstract
Experiments based on the premise of uniformitarism are an effective tool to establish patterns of taphonomic processes acting either before, or after, burial. One process that has been extensively investigated experimentally is the impact of trampling to large mammal bones. Since trampling marks caused by sedimentary friction strongly mimic cut marks made by humans using stone tools during butchery, distinguishing the origin of such modifications is especially relevant to the study of human evolution. In contrast, damage resulting from trampling on small mammal fossil bones has received less attention, despite the fact that it may solve interesting problems relating to site formation processes. While it has been observed that the impact of compression depends on the type of substrate and dryness of the skeletal elements, the fragility of small mammal bones may imply that they will break as a response to compression. Here, we have undertaken a controlled experiment using material resistance compression equipment to simulate a preliminary experiment, previously devised by one of us, on human trampling of owl pellets. Our results demonstrate that different patterns of breakage can be distinguished under wet and dry conditions in mandibles, skulls and long bones that deform or break in a consistent way. Further, small compact bones almost always remain intact, resisting breakage under compression. The pattern obtained here was applied to a Pleistocene small mammal fossil assemblage from Wonderwerk Cave (South Africa). This collection showed unusually extensive breakage and skeletal element representation that could not be entirely explained by excavation procedures or digestion by the predator. We propose that trampling was a significant factor in small mammal bone destruction at Wonderwerk Cave, partly the product of trampling caused by the raptor that introduced the microfauna into the cave, as well as by hominins and other terrestrial animals that entered the cave and trampled pellets covering the cave floor.
Highlights
Understanding the different processes that lead to the formation of fossiliferous assemblages can be problematic as the observed taphonomic signatures are often ambiguous
The equipment to compress the small mammal bones used the same force in the identical direction to prevent the influence of other external parameters which could influence the results
The other two compressed pellets excluded from the Supplementary Information did not yield any of the skeletal elements individually compressed to compare patterns of breakage
Summary
Understanding the different processes that lead to the formation of fossiliferous assemblages can be problematic as the observed taphonomic signatures are often ambiguous. Experiments under controlled conditions or long-term naturalistic monitoring (e.g., [2,3,4]) have been highlighted as the best ways to distinguish between agents since they enable us to track the more refined signatures of modification in fossil assemblages. Such experiments allow us to gain qualitative insights as to how different processes might occur or influence how fossils accumulate during site formation. In order to obtain key traits to distinguish trampling damage from cut marks, and so facilitate assessment of human involvement in a given assemblage, bones of large vertebrates have been extensively studied [14,15]
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