An integral approach to the study of bromalites: Late Quaternary and neo-taphonomic case studies from arid South America

Bromalites are fossil traces of organisms, consisting of material from their digestive system, including coprolites, regurgitalites, consumulites, pabulites and digestilites (Hunt, 1992; Hunt and Lucas, 2021). As such, they inform about the interactions between bromalite-producing organisms and othe...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Mondini, Nora Mariana
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/226352
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/226352
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:COPROLITES
MULTI-SCALE APPROACH
MULTIPROXY ANALYSIS
NEO-TAPHONOMY
QUATERNARY
RAPTOR PELLETS
SOUTH AMERICA
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6.1
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6
Descripción
Sumario:Bromalites are fossil traces of organisms, consisting of material from their digestive system, including coprolites, regurgitalites, consumulites, pabulites and digestilites (Hunt, 1992; Hunt and Lucas, 2021). As such, they inform about the interactions between bromalite-producing organisms and others, as well as between them and the environment generally, at a relatively fine temporal and spatial resolution. Yet, bromalites have often been dismissed in paleontological and, especially, archaeological research. This work discusses the relevance of bromalites as sources of paleoecological and even cultural information, and the importance of integrating multiple lines of evidence and different scales of analysis in the taphonomic study of bromalites. To do so, it reviews the different proxies that can be analysed, and illustrates this integral approach with examples of late Quaternary and modern contexts from an ongoing project in arid South America. It intends to show the potential of such a multiproxy and multiscale approach in order to elicit as much information as possible from these palaeobiological reservoirs.