Flesh availability and bone modifications in carcasses consumed by lions: palaeoecological relevance in hominid foraging patterns

Competing explanations of early human behavior concerning animal carcass ac quisition and exploitation are currently some of the most debated topics in the study of human evolution. Various hypotheses depict hominids as either hunters and flesh-eaters, or as scavengers who mainly consumed marrow and brains. One of the main arguments advanced to support the scavenging hypoth esis is that flesh-bearing medium-sized carcasses (weighing between 150 kg and 350 kg) at early sites could have been obtained from large felid kills. This paper presents the results of a preliminary study, in which I have an alyzed lion-killed carcasses with respect to the availability and disposal of flesh and conspicuous carnivore-inflicted bone damage patterns, so as to have a reference that can be applied both to archaeufaunas and to actualis tic experiments that try to model early human behavior. Bone damage made by lions overlaps the damage patterns caused by other carnivores, such as can ids and hyenids, although it is not as intense. Scraps of flesh available a fter consumption are rare and show a typical anatomical distribution. The s cavenging hypothesis is thus testable by comparing the distribution of cut marks on fossil archaeofaunas to the location of flesh in lions' kills. Com parisons between carcasses in different environments show thar scraps of fl esh can be obtained in open habitats. Carcasses consumed by lions in closed habitats are flesh depleted. The application of this referential framework to archaeological bone assemblages can help to identify hominid foraging s trategies, and indirectly, trophic dynamics on savannas: scavenging in open habitats is only feasible in wet savannas with a slightly marked seasonali ty and lack of migratory biomass [M. Tappen (1992) Ph.D. Thesis, Dept. Anth ropology, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA]; scavenging in closed habitats can only be made in semi-arid seasonal savannas whose biomass is subjected to m igratory processes [R.J. Blumenschine (1986) B.A.R. Int. Ser. 283, Oxford]. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.