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Preliminary small mammal taphonomy of FLK NW level 20 (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Saleta Arcos ,
Paloma Sevilla  and
Yolanda Fernández-Jalvo
Saleta Arcos
Affiliation:
Departamento de Paleontología, Facultad de Geología (UCM) e Instituto de Geología Económica (CSIC), C/José Antonio Novais, 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Paloma Sevilla
Affiliation:
Departamento de Paleontología, Facultad de Geología (UCM) e Instituto de Geología Económica (CSIC), C/José Antonio Novais, 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Yolanda Fernández-Jalvo*
Affiliation:
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: + 34 91 564 5078. E-mail address:yfj@mncn.csic.es (Y. Fernández-Jalvo).
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Abstract

The Bed-I series of Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) is a reference site in human evolution, having yielded the holotypes of Paranthropus boisei and Homo habilis, together with manufactured artefacts and abundant large and micro-fauna. Excavations in Olduvai Gorge have been recently resumed, with new aims and new results. This paper presents the results of the taphonomic analysis carried out on a fossil small-mammal assemblage recovered from FLK NW level 20, a layer overlying Tuff C, dated from 1.84 Ma. The analysis provides good evidence of a category 1 predator, most likely a barn owl, as the predator of the bone assemblage. Trampling and sediment compression might influence postdepositional breakage of the bones. This study is especially relevant since previous taphonomic analyses carried out at levels above and below this sample led to inconclusive results due to a low number of fossils (Fernández-Jalvo et al., 1998). The new sample provides new information to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental context in which early hominins inhabited.

Keywords

Olduvai Bed-ISmall mammalsTaphonomyPalaeoenvironment
Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , November 2010 , pp. 405 - 410
Copyright
University of Washington

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