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Taphonomic information from the modern vertebrate death assemblage of Doñana National Park, Spain

Modern death assemblages provide insights about the early stages of fossilization and useful ecological information about the species inhabiting the ecosystem. We present the results of taphonomic monitoring of modern vertebrate carcasses and bones from Doñana National Park, a Mediterranean coastal...

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Autores principales: Domingo, M. Soledad, Martín-Perea, David M., Badgley, Catherine, Cantero, Enrique, López-Guerrero, Paloma, Oliver, Adriana, Negro, Juan José
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7673518/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33206694
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242082
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author Domingo, M. Soledad
Martín-Perea, David M.
Badgley, Catherine
Cantero, Enrique
López-Guerrero, Paloma
Oliver, Adriana
Negro, Juan José
author_facet Domingo, M. Soledad
Martín-Perea, David M.
Badgley, Catherine
Cantero, Enrique
López-Guerrero, Paloma
Oliver, Adriana
Negro, Juan José
author_sort Domingo, M. Soledad
collection PubMed
description Modern death assemblages provide insights about the early stages of fossilization and useful ecological information about the species inhabiting the ecosystem. We present the results of taphonomic monitoring of modern vertebrate carcasses and bones from Doñana National Park, a Mediterranean coastal ecosystem in Andalusia, Spain. Ten different habitats were surveyed. Half of them occur in active depositional environments (marshland, lake margin, river margin, beach and dunes). Most of the skeletal remains belong to land mammals larger than 5 kg in body weight (mainly wild and feral ungulates). Overall, the Doñana bone assemblage shows good preservation with little damage to the bones, partly as a consequence of the low predator pressure on large vertebrates. Assemblages from active depositional habitats differ significantly from other habitats in terms of the higher incidence of breakage and chewing marks on bones in the latter, which result from scavenging, mainly by wild boar and red fox. The lake-margin and river-margin death assemblages have high concentrations of well preserved bones that are undergoing burial and offer the greatest potential to produce fossil assemblages. The spatial distribution of species in the Doñana death assemblage generally reflects the preferred habitats of the species in life. Meadows seem to be a preferred winter habitat for male deer, given the high number of shed antlers recorded there. This study is further proof that taphonomy can provide powerful insights to better understand the ecology of modern species and to infer past and future scenarios for the fossil record.
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spelling pubmed-76735182020-11-19 Taphonomic information from the modern vertebrate death assemblage of Doñana National Park, Spain Domingo, M. Soledad Martín-Perea, David M. Badgley, Catherine Cantero, Enrique López-Guerrero, Paloma Oliver, Adriana Negro, Juan José PLoS One Research Article Modern death assemblages provide insights about the early stages of fossilization and useful ecological information about the species inhabiting the ecosystem. We present the results of taphonomic monitoring of modern vertebrate carcasses and bones from Doñana National Park, a Mediterranean coastal ecosystem in Andalusia, Spain. Ten different habitats were surveyed. Half of them occur in active depositional environments (marshland, lake margin, river margin, beach and dunes). Most of the skeletal remains belong to land mammals larger than 5 kg in body weight (mainly wild and feral ungulates). Overall, the Doñana bone assemblage shows good preservation with little damage to the bones, partly as a consequence of the low predator pressure on large vertebrates. Assemblages from active depositional habitats differ significantly from other habitats in terms of the higher incidence of breakage and chewing marks on bones in the latter, which result from scavenging, mainly by wild boar and red fox. The lake-margin and river-margin death assemblages have high concentrations of well preserved bones that are undergoing burial and offer the greatest potential to produce fossil assemblages. The spatial distribution of species in the Doñana death assemblage generally reflects the preferred habitats of the species in life. Meadows seem to be a preferred winter habitat for male deer, given the high number of shed antlers recorded there. This study is further proof that taphonomy can provide powerful insights to better understand the ecology of modern species and to infer past and future scenarios for the fossil record. Public Library of Science 2020-11-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7673518/ /pubmed/33206694 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242082 Text en © 2020 Domingo et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Domingo, M. Soledad
Martín-Perea, David M.
Badgley, Catherine
Cantero, Enrique
López-Guerrero, Paloma
Oliver, Adriana
Negro, Juan José
Taphonomic information from the modern vertebrate death assemblage of Doñana National Park, Spain
title Taphonomic information from the modern vertebrate death assemblage of Doñana National Park, Spain
title_full Taphonomic information from the modern vertebrate death assemblage of Doñana National Park, Spain
title_fullStr Taphonomic information from the modern vertebrate death assemblage of Doñana National Park, Spain
title_full_unstemmed Taphonomic information from the modern vertebrate death assemblage of Doñana National Park, Spain
title_short Taphonomic information from the modern vertebrate death assemblage of Doñana National Park, Spain
title_sort taphonomic information from the modern vertebrate death assemblage of doñana national park, spain
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7673518/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33206694
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242082
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