Taphonomic study of the Lower Pleistocene site of Tsiotra Vryssi (Mygdonia basin, Greece): Preliminary results on bone modifications in equid carcasses

Abstract

The fossiliferous site of Tsiotra Vryssi (TSR; Mygdonia Basin, Greece) is dated to the Lower Pleistocene, between 1.78 and 1.5 Ma, and has yielded a rich late Villafranchian vertebrate fauna, including diverse medium- to very large-sized herbivores (equids, bovids, cervids, giraffids, rhinocerotids, elephantids) and several large carnivorans (hyaenids, canids, ursids, felids) (Konidaris et al., 2015, 2021). Previous spatial taphonomic research has investigated the distribution of the TSR fossils and suggested multiple dispersion events and recurrent spatial rearrangement of a lag, (peri)autochthonous assemblage within a fluvial system (Giusti et al., 2019). Herein, we present preliminary results of our ongoing taphonomic study on carnivore modifications, and we focus on equid postcranial bones, which comprise the bulk of the TSR vertebrate assemblage. For the analysis, we perform a set of standard taphonomic analyses, following the “physical attribute approach” of Domínguez-Rodrigo et al. (2007, 2015a), in which the alterations in the physical attributes of skeletal elements constitute the major component for the interpretation of the taphonomic history of the assemblage. Therefore, besides the skeletal part representation, we focus here on bone surface modifications and bone damage patterns aiming to reveal the main biotic agent responsible for the modification of bones.