TABLE 1. Bones taphonomically modified used for this study with the corresponding geographical area, predator involved and taxonomic group. Most of the rodents from European wildcat belongs to Muridae (Piñeiro and Barja, 2011) and fossil remains mostly belongs to Arvicolidae (Sesé and Villa, 2008; Williams et al., 2018). Taxonomic studies are not published for the remains of the captive barn owls and genet. As we are using postcranial remains, the identification to the level of species is difficult to obtain. * “Non-modified” bones were previously analysed to select those bones that had no signs of digestion.
| Alteration | Geographic origin |
Predator | Taxonomic group |
| Non-modified* | Spain | Captive barn owls (Tyto alba) | Rodentia |
| Weathered | Tanzania | Genet (Genetta genetta) | Rodentia/Eulipotyphla |
| Digested | Spain | European wildcat (Felis silvestris) | Rodentia |
| Weathered + digested | Tanzania | Genet (Genetta genetta) | Rodentia/Eulipotyphla |
| Non-digested fossils | France | Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) | Rodentia |
| Digested fossils | France | Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) | Rodentia |
TABLE 2. Mean values of surface loss (in %) calculated for all the bones included in each category of taphonomic modification, in modern and fossil bones, depending on the sediment in which they were abraded. Total mean was calculated for a better representation of the tendency showed by the data obtained. Values in bold correspond to skeletal elements broken during the experiment.
| Gravels | Clay + silts | |
| Non-modified | 10.74% | 1.30% |
| 14.59% | 0.34% | |
| 4.74% | 2.74% | |
| 5.97% | 0.50% | |
| TOTAL MEAN 9.01% |
TOTAL MEAN 1.22% |
|
| Digested | 17.80% | 1.88% |
| 14.97% | 4.53% | |
| 6.55% | 4.98% | |
| 1.70% | 1.53% | |
| TOTAL MEAN 10.26% |
TOTAL MEAN 3.23% |
|
| Weathered | 28.92% | 6.67% |
| 17.24% | 7.77% | |
| 17.56% | 0.79% | |
| 10.59% | 0.50% | |
| TOTAL MEAN 18.57% |
TOTAL MEAN 3.93% |
|
| Weathered + digested | 26.19% | 5.07% |
| 16.57% | 3.36% | |
| 32.93% | 2.29% | |
| 31.18% | 0.00% | |
| TOTAL MEAN 26.72% |
TOTAL MEAN 2.68% |
|
| Non-digested fossil | 14.17% | 2.49% |
| 33.23% | 3.33% | |
| TOTAL MEAN 23.70% |
TOTAL MEAN 2.91% |
|
| Digested fossil | 18.18% | 13.85% |
| 35.42% | 1.01% | |
| TOTAL MEAN 26.80% |
TOTAL MEAN 7.43% |
TABLE 3. Results from the statistical test applied and the estimate coefficient for the response variable applying the Generalized Linear Model (GLM). The D2 indicates how much variability is explained by the initial taphonomic modification affecting the bone surface. Analyses were done with a 95% of confidence interval.
| D2 | Degrees of freedom |
p-value | Coefficient | Standard error | |
| Gravels | 0.285 | 38 | 7.773e-5 | 0.288 | 0.074 |
| Clay + silts | 0.086 | 33 | 0.101 | 0.225 | 0.136 |
