Vertebrate Taphonomy
Vertebrate Taphonomy
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USDIn recent years archaeologists and paleontologists have become increasingly interested in how and why vertebrate animal remains become, or do not become, fossils. Vertebrate Taphonomy introduces interested researchers to the wealth of analytical techniques developed by archaeologists and paleontologists to help them understand why prehistoric animal remains do or do not preserve, and why those that preserve appear the way they do. This book is comprehensive in scope, and will serve as an important work of reference for years to come.
- No other available volume is as extensive in coverage or as explicitly geared to being a text
- Detailed examples of how particular analytical techniques are applied and what the results signify
- Several new insights to the underpinning assumptions of various analytic techniques in common use today
Reviews & endorsements
"...a comprehensive, detailed and accurate book that will make taphonomy accessible to specialists and nonspecialists alike. It is essential reading for all vertebrate palaeontologists, archaeologists and palaeoecologists and provides crucial background information for workers in other disciplines who use fossil material, especially molecular biologists attempting to extract DNA from fossil bone." Nature
"Vertebrate Taphonomy succeeds through a combination of clear writing, high-quality illustrations, and Lyman's encyclopedic knowledge...A good discussion, extensive up-to-date bibliography, and generally excellent glossary round out this highly recommended volume." E. Delson, Choice
"...bold in its wide coverage....Readers will see wisdom in this book, a welcome development in a field where all publications are touted as final authorities....fair and fluid, comprehensive and nonconfrontational....you leave educated and edified." Gary Haynes, Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology
"Lyman's book is a major scientific contribution and is both an excellent teaching tool for advanced students and a helpful guide to practicing professionals. The author successfully integrates existing knowledge and approaches from a vast array of sources....Moreover, the level of scholarship is excellent....Readers are provided with a comprehensive array of analytical alternatives and equally important, Lyman encourages readers to make their own--albeit better informed--decisions in relation to the problems." American Antiquity
"...all scientists who are interested in taphonomy or zooarchaeology can rejoice at the publication of Vertebrate Taphonomy by R. Lee Lyman....an enormous accomplishment for such a broadly based book....essential for anyone interested in taphonomy....This book is a gift to all zooarchaeologists...." Curtis W. Marean, Evolutionary Anthropology
Product details
August 1994Paperback
9780521458405
552 pages
246 × 189 × 28 mm
1kg
46 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- 1. What is taphonomy?
- 2. The history and structure of taphonomy
- 3. Taphonomy in practice and theory
- 4. Structure and quantification of vertebrate skeletons
- 5. Vertebrate mortality, skeletonization, disarticulation, and scattering
- 6. Accumulation and dispersal of vertebrate remains
- 7. Frequencies of skeletal parts
- 8. Butchering, bone fracturing and bone tools
- 9. Other biostratinomic factors
- 10. Burial as a taphonomic process
- 11. Diagenesis
- 12. Taphonomy of fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians
- 13. Discussion and conclusions
- Glossary.
