See more from this Division: General Discipline Sessions
See more from this Session: Paleontology IV - Exceptional Preservation and Taphonomy
Abstract:
Results indicate that, while the age-frequency distribution of the modern surface assemblage is near exponential, deeper strata exhibit modes at intermediate ages. While a stratum's maximum extent of time-averaging can range from 300 to 8000 years, its effective temporal resolution is often constrained by an order of magnitude. No predictive relationship is found between a bone's age and its taphonomic condition. Exponential decay curves cannot account for the observed age-frequency distributions. Simulations suggest a more complex interplay between decreasing rates of input over time, and loss rates that increase as a function of a bone's age. Results from this study fill in the gap in our understanding of the scale and dynamics of time-averaging in small-bodied terrestrial vertebrate systems, and indicate that such deposits, even when significantly time-averaged, can represent valuable sources of ecological information over 102 103 time-scales.
See more from this Division: General Discipline Sessions
See more from this Session: Paleontology IV - Exceptional Preservation and Taphonomy