CONCLUSIONS

1. The 15 year monitoring of a camel skeleton at Jebel Barakah, United Arab Emirates, has shown that rate and degree of weathering was slower than in tropical Africa. At comparable yearly intervals the camel skeleton was 1 to 2 weathering stages behind the skeletons from Amboseli, Kenya. Bones protected from weathering by burial predictably showed little evidence of surface weathering, but there were root marks on some of the bones caused by the extensive root systems of the desert grasses.
2. Dispersal of bones was irregular, and it almost certainly reflects the uneven distribution of rain, with no rain at all some years. Bones were transported up to 45 m down the gully, but many of the ribs and vertebrae were not moved at all. The pattern of movement of skeletal elements differs from that indicated by experimental work on fluvial transport of bone.
3. There was some evidence of carnivore action, with the maximum pit size indicating a scavenger larger than fox. No hyaenas are present in the area today, and it is likely that the marks were made by jackals.