The barn owl as an accumulator of bone remains in central western Argentina: multi-taxa neo-taphonomic approach and implications for Holocene contexts

Abstract

Barn owls are the most widely distributed group of owls in the world and are among the most common accumulators of small vertebrate remains atarcheological and paleontological sites. Despite its importance as a bone remains accumulator and predictor of paleoenvironmental conditions due toits generalist habits, the vertebrate prey of this raptor has been scarcely studied from an ecological community perspective, especially considering thediverse range of prey it captures. Archeological, paleontological, and taphonomic studies typically reveal taxon-specific patterns, focusing primarily onsmall rodents. In order to overcome this problem, we studied an assemblage of vertebrate bones from barn owl pellets in the central Monte Desertof Argentina. Our analysis included the full range of prey taxa, including rodents, marsupials, birds, and reptiles, addressed from both an ecological andneo-taphonomic perspective. We compare the taxonomic and taphonomic findings with those from regional small vertebrate records obtained fromvarious sampling types over the past 50years to explore recent environmental changes within the Anthropocene. The assemblage of small vertebrateprey presented here comprises five species of cricetids, one species from the Caviidae family, and at least one ctenomyid rodent species. Additionally, theassemblage includes one species of didelphid marsupial, one reptile species, and at least six passeriform bird species that belong to separate families. Theoverall taphonomic trends are consistent with the typical barn owl pattern. However, our analysis identified a larger percentage of postcranial elementsexhibiting signs of digestion compared to pellet-derived vertebrate bone assemblages previously documented. Furthermore, it is important to note thata significant proportion of avian bone fragments exhibit distinct signs of digestion.