Four decades of actualistic carnivore taphonomy in the Southern Neotropics: A state of the art

Abstract

Based on a bibliographic survey, this paper reviews the state of the art of actualistic taphonomicinformation of different autochthonous mammalian carnivores in the southern Neotropics. Thecharacteristics of this corpus of data and its implications for the fossil record are analysed. The paperfocuses on identifying and discussing those areas of research that are robustly reflected by existingstudies. Synthetic discussion of the results of research on the most studied carnivore taxa, types of boneassemblages, actualistic approaches, and ecological zones in the region are presented. While the field ofactualistic taphonomic research is well-developed in the region, there are several gaps that require moreattention for the future investigation.