APPENDICULAR ELEMENT EVENNESS IN AN AVIAN-DOMINATED TYTO ALBA PELLET ASSEMBLAGE

The taphonomy of mammalian remains from owl pellets is increasingly well studied. It is unclear, however, how assemblages of bird remains deposited by owls may differ from mammalian remains, due to the unique avian osteology and ecology. Bird bones are generally more fragile than those of mammals, and may therefore be represented less evenly in fossil assemblages as a result of differential destruction. Avian remains believed to have been deposited by the barn owl (Tyto alba) in Me Aure Cave, New Caledonia, are used here to address this question. Relative percentages of 5 postcranial elements were calculated for the Me Aure collection and compared with values reported in the published literature from owl pellet assemblages of mammals and reptiles. The reptile assemblage of La Cueva del Llano (Canary Islands, Spain) was found to be significantly less even than all of the other assemblages, while the mammal assemblage of La Cueva del Llano and the avian assemblage of Me Aure were statistically indistinguishable in evenness. According to Levene’s test, all three were significantly less even than the remainder of the assemblages, which came from actualistic or modern ecological studies. This suggests that the processes of fossil deposition may be more important in skewing appendicular element representation than taxonomic composition.