The effects of prey size on carnivore tooth mark morphologies on bone; the case study of Canis lupus signatus

ABSTRACT

Carnivore feeding behaviour is a valuable line of research of increasing value in taphonomic analyses. An interesting component of these studies lies in the differentiation of carnivore activity based on tooth marks left on bone. Among the methodological approaches available, a major protagonist in recent years has been the incorporation of hybrid geometric morphometric studies with artificially intelligent algorithms, reaching over 95% accuracy in some cases. In spite of this recent success, a number of methodological questions are still to be answered for wide scale application of these techniques into other applied fields of science. One of these questions lies in the possible variability induced by prey size on tooth mark morphologies. Here we compile data regarding these effects, using the Iberian wolf as a relevant case study in both contemporary and prehistoric European and North American ecology. The methodology employed opens new questions regarding carnivore tooth marks that should consider the effects of mastication biomechanics. While in most cases prey size is not a significant conditioning factor, caution is advised for future experimentation when considering small prey where some statistical noise may be present. Nevertheless, future experimentation into other carnivore case studies can be considered a valuable research goal.

KEYWORDS:

• Taphonomy
• geometric morphometrics
• tooth marks
• wolves
• prey size

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the help and support provided by the staff of the Cabárceno Natural Park and Santiago Borragán for providing the samples used in our experiments. We would also like to thank the Hosquillo game reserve for their help and access to facilities. We would also like to than the TIDOP 1 & 2 Groups from the Department of Cartographic and Land Engineering of the Higher Polytechnics School of Avila, University of Salamanca, for the use of their tools and facilities. The corresponding author is also grateful for comments made by Rosa Huguet and Darío Herranz Rodrigo regarding the contents of this paper. We would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments made to improve earlier versions of this paper. We would like to acknowledge the Plan TCUE 2018–2020 of the General Foundation of Salamanca University. Finally, L.A.C. is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities with a FPI Predoctoral Grant (Ref. PRE2019-089411) associated to project RTI2018-099850-B-I00 and the University of Salamanca.

Author contributions

L.A.C. Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Data Curation, Visualization, Writing – Original draft, review and editing. J.Y. Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Project Administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – Review and Editing. M.Á.M.G. Funding Acquisition. J.M.V.R. Resources. M.F.F. Funding Acquisition. D.G.A. Project Administration, Supervision, Funding Acquisition, Writing – Review and Editing. All authors have given final approval for publication.

Data availability

All measurements and geometric morphometric landmark data have been included as supplementary files.

Disclosure statement

We have no conflicts of interests to declare. All authors have read and approved the present study and take full responsibility for its content.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the General Foundation of the University of Salamanca, under the Plan TCUE 2018-2020; Project ‘WOLF_FOOTPRINT’ (PC-TCUE18-20_2013). Lead researcher D.G.A; Fundación General de la Universidad de Salamanca [TCUE18-20_2013].