#taphonomy — Public Fediverse posts

Explaining skeletal aggregations is not easy, especially when stating gregariousness. Why should members of a social group die in a one-off incident? Here is an outdated sketch drawn for the research team. Later, they opted for lightning strike, which is physically more appropriate than the monster wave, but still admitting a perplexing question.

#pencildrawing #europasaurus #sauropod #jurassic #dinosaur #taphonomy #artandscience #Research #paleontology

FINALLY! Our first comprehensive paper on the #Vráble #Neolithic #Bodies has been published! First #osteological observations, #taphonomy, depositional #complexity, context within #LBK settlements with #humanremains in central Europe–have a read, share it & discuss with us! 🦴📄👀🛋️ t1p.de/63zyx

🔥New paper out now in Journal of Human Evolution🔥

Grăunceanu (Romania) with an estimated age >1.95 Ma is not an archaeological site!

A new study by the MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre (LEIZA), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Leiden University has refuted the evidence of human activity in the form of cut marks on animal bones.
@paleomonrepos
#Archaeology #Research #taphonomy #zooarchaeology #archeology #animalbones

Read now 👇
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248425001393?via%3Dihub

Ancient concretions on human remains hold microbial DNA and proteins, revealing how decay itself can preserve life’s molecular traces. A new frontier for archaeology’s molecular record. #Bioarchaeology #AncientDNA #Taphonomy https://www.anthropology.net/p/the-bodys-afterlife-how-mineral-concretions

I encountered the word "taphonomy" for the first time today. Basing a conjecture on its Greek roots, I thought it might refer to the law and customs pertaining to graves and burials.

My guess was wrong:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taphonomy

I don't mean any disrespect to paleontologists here when I say I wish my guess had been right. I suppose it's a consequence of my being less interested in the natural sciences than the social sciences and humanities.

#Taphonomy #Paleontology

Also, I forgot to mention this great Common Descent episode about decomposers:
https://commondescentpodcast.com/2025/03/15/episode-213-decomposers/

#fossils
#paleontology
#decomposition
#taphonomy

Fetid Fish Revise Understanding of #Fossil Formation

This study's findings raises important questions regarding just how "primitive" the early ancestors of vertebrates were 500 million years ago

by @grrlscientist via #Substack

#Fish #taphonomy #SciComm https://grrlscientist.substack.com/p/fetid-fish-revise-understanding-of

Fetid Fish Revise Understanding of #Fossil Formation

This study's findings raises important questions regarding just how "primitive" the early ancestors of vertebrates were 500 million years ago

by @GrrlScientist via #Substack

#Fish #taphonomy #SciComm https://grrlscientist.substack.com/p/fetid-fish-revise-understanding-of

🦴 Cave environments affect bone at the Galería site (Spain) over 300ka. Lowest levels <3% survival - heavy rainfall 🌧️ ➡️ acid soils leach away bone. As climate dries, preservation improves ML 🤖 89% classification Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41... #archaeology #taphonomy #geochemistry

🦴🩻🔬🧪 50 years of scanning electron #microscopy of #bone—a comprehensive overview of the important discoveries made and insights gained into bone material properties in #health, #disease, and #taphonomy

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41413-019-0053-z

#imaging #microscopy #biomaterials #osteocyte #biomineralization #science #biology #osteology #materialsscience #materials

#NewPaper #Paleontology #Taphonomy

Slater, T.S., Edwards, N.P., Webb, S.M. et al. Preservation of corneous β-proteins in Mesozoic feathers. Nat Ecol Evol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02177-8

#NewPaper #Paleontology #Taphonomy

Losso, S.R., Thines, J.E. & Ortega-Hernández, J. Taphonomy of non-biomineralized trilobite tissues preserved as calcite casts from the Ordovician Walcott-Rust Quarry, USA. Commun Earth Environ 4, 330 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00981-5

#NewPaper #Paleontology #Pterosaurs #Taphonomy

Roy E. Smith, David M. Martill, Nick Longrich, David M. Unwin, Nizar Ibrahim & Samir Zouhri (2023)
Comparative taphonomy of Kem Kem Group (Cretaceous) pterosaurs of southeast Morocco
Evolving Earth 100006
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eve.2023.100006
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950117223000067

#NewPaper #Paleontology #MarineReptiles #Taphonomy

De La Garza, R.G., Sjövall, P., Hauff, R. and Lindgren, J. (2023), Preservational modes of some ichthyosaur soft tissues (Reptilia, Ichthyopterygia) from the Jurassic Posidonia Shale of Germany. Palaeontology, 66: e12668. https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.12668

Perfectly preserved #turtle fossil gives clues to habitat 150 million years ago
https://phys.org/news/2023-07-turtle-fossil-clues-habitat-million.html

A new specimen of #Solnhofia parsonsi from the Upper #Jurassic Plattenkalk deposits of Painten and comments on the relationship between limb #taphonomy and habitat #ecology in #fossil #turtles https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287936

"About 150 million years ago, a shallow, tropical sea stretched across southern #Germany; it contained many islands and reefs that separated basins from the open sea."

Happy #FieldFriday from the Lower Pleistocene #paleontological site Tsiotra Vryssi (TSR, northern Greece) with the joint University of Tübingen-University of Thessaloniki team! 🤠
🔗 Read about TSR in the #OpenAccess paper by Konidaris et al. (2021)
https://doi.org/10.3390/quat4010001
Here are some of this year’s finds from TSR! ⚒️ Articulated specimens and carnivore modified bones are common in the assemblage.
🔗Read about the #taphonomy of TSR in the paper by Katsagoni et al. (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2022.2140424

I'd like to highlight a niche paper by Hans Pellmann (2021) that documents branchiopod crustacean aktuo-paläontologie--documenting what happens in the modern world BEFORE fossilization. First, a dried out community of the clam shrimp Limnadia lenticularis (photo b J. Venzlaff). #arthropoda #crustacea #branchiopoda #spinicaudata #conchostraca #taphonomy #fossilization
(1/6)

#NewPaper #Paleontology #Taphonomy #DataManagement

JULIA B. MCHUGH, STEPHANIE K. DRUMHELLER, MIRIAM KANE, ANJA RIEDEL, JENNIFER H. NESTLER; ASSESSING PALEOECOLOGICAL DATA RETENTION AMONG DISPARATE FIELD COLLECTION REGIMES: A CASE STUDY AT THE MYGATT-MOORE QUARRY (MORRISON FORMATION). PALAIOS 2023;; 38 (5): 233–239. doi: https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2022.048

#NewPaper #Paleoanthropology #Paleomammalogy #Taphonomy
M. P. Espigares et al. (2023)
Sharing food with hyenas: a latrine of Pachycrocuta brevirostris in the Early Pleistocene assemblage of Fuente Nueva-3 (Orce, Baza Basin, SE Spain)
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 15:81
doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01784-7
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-023-01784-7

New study on #palaeobiology and #taphonomy of #epizoans on #orthoconic shells from the Lower #Devonian Hunsrück Slate, Germany including new occurrences of possible parasitic pits on non-ammonoid #cephalopods https://doi.org/10.1127/pala/2023/0142 #Paleontology #Fossils #EcologicalInteractions

#NewPaper #Paleontology #Taphonomy #Amber

Solórzano‑Kraemer, M.M., Peñalver, E., Herbert, M.C.M. et al. Necrophagy by insects in Oculudentavis and other lizard body fossils preserved in Cretaceous amber. Sci Rep 13, 2907 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29612-x

#NewPaper #Paleontology #Paleoichthyology #Taphonomy

Stinnesbeck ES, Herder F, Rust J, Stinnesbeck W (2023) Taphonomy of the teleost Tselfatia formosa Arambourg, 1943 from Vallecillo, NE Mexico. PLoS ONE 18(2): e0280797. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280797

#NewPaper #Paleontology #Taphonomy

A.D. Muscente, Olivia Vinnes, Sinjini Sinha, James D. Schiffbauer, Erin E. Maxwell, Günter Schweigert & Rowan C. Martindale (2023)
What role does anoxia play in exceptional fossil preservation? Lessons from the taphonomy of the Posidonia Shale (Germany)
Earth-Science Reviews 104323
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104323
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012825223000120

If there's one idea that I've learned from archeologists that I most wish would permeate into public consciousness it's #taphonomy: the interference between what was and what we can see. Caves act as protective tubes between past and future, while the advance and retreat of the ice sheets wiped the surface clean beyond them. The tropics are biologically rich but consumed and metabolized the bones and tools of most of our ancestors.

#archaeology #perspective #longnow