The characterization of bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) coprolites in the archaeological record

被引:3
|
作者
Sanz, Montserrat [1 ,2 ]
Daura, Joan [1 ,2 ]
Costa, Ana Maria [3 ,4 ,5 ,6 ]
Araujo, Ana Cristina [2 ,3 ,4 ]
机构
[1] Univ Barcelona, Dept Hist & Archaeol, Grp Recerca Quaternari, GRQ SERP, Barcelona 08001, Spain
[2] Univ Lisbon, Ctr Arqueol, Fac Letras, UNIARQ, P-1600214 Lisbon, Portugal
[3] Lab Arqueociencias LARC DGPC, Calcada Mirante Ajuda 10A, P-1300418 Lisbon, Portugal
[4] CIBIO Ctr Invest Biodiversidade & Recursos Genet, BIOPOLIS Programme Genom Biodivers & Land Planning, InBIO Lab Associado, Vairao, Portugal
[5] Univ Lisbon, IDL Inst Dom Luiz, Edificio C6,Piso 3, P-1749016 Lisbon, Portugal
[6] Univ Cantabria, IIIPC Inst Int Invest Prehist Cantabria, Gobierno Cantabria Santander, Avda Castros 52, Santander 39005, Spain
关键词
BONE ACCUMULATION; BREEDING SUCCESS; PLEISTOCENE; SITE; HYENA; ASSEMBLAGES; OCCUPATION; PORTUGAL; MURCIA;
D O I
10.1038/s41598-022-25288-x
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
The archaeological record of the Lagar Velho rock shelter (Lapedo Valley, Leiria, Portugal) bears testimony to several significant Upper Palaeolithic occupations, most notably the Lapedo Child burial (LV1) dating from the Gravettian. Excavations undertaken at the site since 2018 have seen the recovery of a large quantity of coprolites, above all in layer 143 (c. 29 ka cal BP). The study of these fossilized remains points to the bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) as the main coprogenic agent and provides the first descriptions of these avian coprolites in archaeological assemblages. The analyses reported involved the comparison of the coprogenic samples with modern bearded vulture scats. A new morphotype is proposed for discriminating the faeces of this avian scavenger based on (1) macroscopic analyses, (2) morphometric comparisons with other fossil and modern scats and (3) their mineralogical and elemental composition. Among the criteria proposed here to identify the coprolites of the bearded vulture are their cylindrical shape, diameter, pointed extremities and homogeneous porous texture, as well as their massive internal texture, hard consistency and total absence of bone inclusions (attributable in all likelihood to a high digastric juice acidity capable of dissolving bones). Our results indicate that, as well as being used by humans for short-term stays, the Lagar Velho rock shelter was used by the bearded vulture as a nesting site. We provide new evidence from Iberia of the activity of this avian scavenger as a bone accumulator in archaeological sites.
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页数:15
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