Paleozoology and Paleoenvironments: Fundamentals, Assumptions, Techniques

Description

Paleozoology and Paleoenvironments outlines the reconstruction of ancient climates, floras, and habitats on the basis of animal fossil remains recovered from archaeological and paleontological sites. In addition to outlining the ecological fundamentals and analytical assumptions attending such analyzes, J. Tyler Faith and R. Lee Lyman describe and critically evaluate many of the varied analytical techniques that have been applied to paleozoological remains for the purpose of paleoenvironmental reconstruction. These techniques range from analyses based on the presence or abundance of species in a fossil assemblage to those based on taxon-free ecological characterizations. All techniques are illustrated using faunal data from archaeological or paleontological contexts. Aimed at students and professionals, this volume will serve as fundamental resource for courses in zooarchaeology, paleontology, and paleoecology.

J. Tyler Faith is curator of archaeology at the Natural History Museum of Utah and assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Utah. His research emphasizes the relationships between Quaternary mammal communities, environmental change, and human-environment interactions, with an emphasis on eastern and southern Africa. R. Lee Lyman is emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri, Columbia. A scholar of late Quaternary paleozoology and human prehistory of the Pacific Northwest United States, he is author of Vertebrate Taphonomy (Cambridge, 1994), Quantitative Paleozoology (Cambridge, 2008), and Theodore E. White and the Development of Zooarchaeology in North America (2016).

'This volume offers students and professionals in zooarchaeology, paleontology, and paleoecology an important resource.' L. T. Spencer, Choice '... Faith and Lyman have succeeded in pioneering paleoenvironmental reconstruction via faunabased methods. Aimed primarily at upper-level students of ecology, zooarcheology, and paleontology, the book remains accessible to other readers interested in the subject. Every chapter keeps one foot in the historical past and another in the geologic past while keeping the focus on modern applications (and beyond). This volume will be an indispensable companion to both paleontologists and neonatologists interested in understanding past, present, and future environments.' Jeremy B. Stout, The Quarterly Review of Biology