The significance of vertebrate microfossil size and shape distributions for faunal abundance reconstructions: a Late Cretaceous example

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Abstract

Faunal abundance and fossil size and shape data from microvertebrate localities in the Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of south-central Montana illustrate that even when located in similar sedimentary facies, concentrations of vertebrate microfossils may exhibit strikingly different taphonomic profiles. Degrees of microfossil size and shape sorting may vary even among sites from the same sedimentary facies. In some instances, such variations may make it impossible to disregard taphonomic causes for differences sites exhibit in paleofaunal abundances. To limit the possibility that taphonomically generated faunal differences might be mistaken for true differences in paleoecology, comparisons of paleofaunal abundances should be restricted to microvertebrate sites both from similar sedimentary facies and with similar profiles of fossil sizes and shapes.

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Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering

Anna K. Behrensmeyer (1978)

Bones of recent mammals in the Amboseli Basin, southern Kenya, exhibit distinctive weathering characteristics that can be related to the time since death and to the local conditions of temperature, humidity and soil chemistry. A categorization of weathering characteristics into six stages, recognizable on descriptive criteria, provides a basis for investigation of weathering rates and processes. The time necessary to achieve each successive weathering stage has been calibrated using known-age carcasses. Most bones decompose beyond recognition in 10 to 15 yr. Bones of animals under 100 kg and juveniles appear to weather more rapidly than bones of large animals or adults. Small-scale rather than widespread environmental factors seem to have greatest influence on weathering characteristics and rates. Bone weathering is potentially valuable as evidence for the period of time represented in recent or fossil bone assemblages, including those on archeological sites, and may also be an important tool in censusing populations of animals in modern ecosystems.