Research Training ProgramSmithsonian
Institution
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| C. Tristan Stayton Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Ph.D. "The opportunity to work at the Smithsonian Institution, with some of the World's authorities in my field, was a wonderful experience and one I feel will be most beneficial in the future." |
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Taphonomy and Paleoecology of Avifaunal Remains from Amboseli Park, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Avian skeletal remains can be useful in reconstructing paleoenvironments and providing information about the ecology of the organisms they represent. A total of 54 avian skeletal occurrences and a sub-sample of 126 identifiable bones from Amboseli Park, Kenya, were analyzed taphonomically to determine how avian bones weather and to investigate selective preservation of species and skeletal parts. Data are compared with taphonomic information from mammals to determine features of avian remains that may be unique in the vertebrate fossil record. Bone weathering data indicate that avian fossil remains, with the exception of ostrich, weather in a manner similar to that of juvenile mammals and rarely reach advanced stages of weathering. This is consistent with the well-known fragility of most avian bones. Species represented in the bone assemblage are also compared with the living Amboseli avifauna under various ecomorphic categories such as body weight, diet, and habitat. Results show a preservation bias towards species of large body size, aquatic, semi-aquatic, or open grassland/savanna habitats, and grazing or scavenging dietary modes. Finally, the Amboseli bone assemblage is compared with a fossil assemblage from the Langebaanweg site in South Africa in terms of taxonomic and ecomorphic categories and representation and completeness of skeletal elements. The Amboseli specimens are individually more complete than those of Langebaanweg and show less bias towards posterior skeletal elements. The Langebaanweg fossil assemblage shows a greater relative abundance of medium-sized terrestrial or aquatic birds, whereas the Amboseli pre-fossil assemblage is dominated by large grazer/browsers or scavengers.
This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program -award number DBI-9531331.