Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-d8cs5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-09T07:53:16.046Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Taphonomic investigations of owl pellets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Peter Dodson  and
Diane Wexlar
Peter Dodson
Affiliation:
Laboratories of Anatomy, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, and Research Associate, Academy of Natural Sciences, 19th and Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Diane Wexlar
Affiliation:
Laboratories of Anatomy, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, PA 19104
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Owls are important consumers of small vertebrates, and because they regurgitate pellets rich in bone, they may be important potential contributors of the concentrated remains of small vertebrates to the fossil record. Owls of three sizes, the large great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), the medium-sized barn owl (Tyto alba), and the small screech owl (Otus asio), were fed a common diet of mice. The bony contents of the pellets were analyzed to determine the amount of bone loss by digestion, bone completeness, and sites of bone breakage. For all three species, only about half the number of bones ingested were recovered in the pellets. Mandibles and femora were most abundant, and pelves and scapulae were the least abundant. Screech owls broke 80% of the cranial and limb elements, barn owls only 30%. Skulls fared poorly in great horned and screech owl pellets, while barn owls returned 80% of the skulls intact, with only the caudal portion of the cranium damaged; barn owls also returned articulated strings of vertebrae and complete paws. These results provide a baseline for the recognition of owls as agents of accumulation of small bones in the fossil record and suggest that the actions of ancient predators may be revealed by species-specific patterns of bone destruction of an assemblage of fossil prey species.

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , Summer 1979 , pp. 275 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Brain, C. K. 1967. Hottentot food remains and their bearing on the interpretation of fossil bone assemblages. Sci. Pap. Namib Desert Res. Sta. 32:1–11.Google Scholar
Brain, C. K. 1969. The contribution of Namib Desert Hottentots to an understanding of australopithecine bone accumulations. Sci. Pap. Namib Desert Res. Sta. 39:13–22.Google Scholar
Brain, C. K. 1976. Some principles in the interpretation of bone accumulations associated with man. Pp. 99–116. In: Isaac, G. L. and McCowen, E. R., eds. Human Origins: Perspectives in Human Evolution. Vol. 3. W. A. Benjamin; Menlo Park, Calif.Google Scholar
Brain, C. K.In press. Some criteria for the recognition of bone collecting agencies in African caves. In: Behrensmeyer, A. K. and Hill, A., eds. Fossils in the Making. Univ. Chicago Press; Chicago, Ill.Google Scholar
Brodkorb, P. 1971. Catalogue of Fossil Birds. Part 4 (Columbiformes through Piciformes). Bull. Fla. St. Mus. Biol. Sci. 15:163–266.Google Scholar
Craighead, J. J. and Craighead, F. C. Jr. 1969. Hawks, Owls and Wildlife. 443 pp. Dover; New York.Google Scholar
Davis, D. H. S. 1959. The barn owl's contribution to ecology and palaeoecology. Ostrich Suppl. 3:144–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dexter, R. W. 1978. Mammals utilized as food by owls, in reference to the local fauna of northeastern Ohio. Kirtlandia. 24:1–6.Google Scholar
Dodson, P. 1973. The significance of small bones in paleoecological interpretation. Contrib. Geol. Univ. Wyo. 12:15–19.Google Scholar
Duke, G. E., Evanson, O. A., and Jegers, A. 1976. Meal to pellet intervals in 14 species of captive raptors. Comp. Biochem Physiol. 53A:1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duke, G. E., Jegers, A. A., Loff, G., and Evanson, O. A. 1975. Gastric digestion in some raptors. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 50A:649–656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duke, G. E. and Rhoades, D. D. 1977. Factors affecting meal to pellet intervals in great horned owls (Bubo virginianus). Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 56A:283–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Einarsen, A. S. 1956. Determination of some predator species by some field signs. Oregon State Monogr., Studies in Zool. 10:1–34.Google Scholar
Estes, R. 1964. Fossil vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous Lance Formation, eastern Wyoming. Univ. Calif. Publ. Geol. Sci. 49:1–180.Google Scholar
Estes, R. and Berberian, P. 1970. Paleoecology of a Late Cretaceous vertebrate community from Montana. Breviora. 243:1–35.Google Scholar
Fogden, M. 1975. Fishing owls, eagle owls and the snowy owl. Pp. 61–93. In: Burton, J. A., ed. Owls of the World. 216 pp.Dutton; New York.Google Scholar
Gnidovec, D. M. 1978. Taphonomy of the Powder Wash vertebrate quarry, Green River Formation (Eocene), Uintah County, Utah. Unpubl. M.S. thesis. Fort Hays State Univ., Kansas. 45 pp.Google Scholar
Guilday, J. E., Parmalee, P. W., and Hamilton, H. W. 1977. The Clark's Cave bone deposit and the Late Pleistocene paleoecology of the central Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. Carnegie Mus. Nat. Hist. Bull. 2:1–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendey, Q. B. and Singer, R. 1965. The faunal assemblages from the Gamtoos Valley shelters. S. Afr. Archeol. Bull. 20:206–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hekstra, G. P. 1973. Scops and screech owls. Pp. 94–115. In: Burton, J. A., ed. Owls of the World. 216 pp.Dutton; New York.Google Scholar
Korth, W. W.In Press. Taphonomy of microvertebrate fossil assemblages. Carnegie Mus. Nat. Hist. Bull.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, C. A. and Kerfoot, W. C. 1963. Mammalian remains from owl-pellets in eastern Wyoming. J. Mammal. 44:129–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayhew, D. F. 1977. Avian predators as accumulators of fossil mammal material. Boreas. 6:25–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellett, J. S. 1974. Scatological origins of microvertebrate fossil accumulations. Science. 185:349–350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Presst, I. and Wagstaffe, R. 1973. Barn and bay owls. Pp. 42–60. In: Burton, J. A., ed. Owls of the World. 216 pp.Dutton; New York.Google Scholar
Raczynski, J. and Ruprecht, A. L. 1974. The effect of digestion on the osteological composition of owl pellets. Acta Ornithol. 14:25–38.Google Scholar
Wolff, R. G. 1973. Hydrodynamic sorting and ecology of a Pleistocene mammalian assemblage from California (U.S.A.). Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol. 13:91–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar