• With the people next to you
• Compile a list concerning all the possible ways that you can think of
for a living thing to meet its demise
• Also list how this may be recognized in the fossil/archeo record
• Taphonomy and mode of death - features of the skeleton
• Taphonomy and mode of death - features of the assemblage
Ways to Die
• Taphonomy and mode of death - features of the assemblage
• Examine modern populations
• Cohorts
• Cohort “life tables”
Ways to Die
• Mortality profiles
• 2 basic distributions
• U-shaped = attritional mortality
• L-shaped = catastrophic mortality
• To be useful must study these profiles in light of the ecology &
behavior of the group involved, and the geological context
Ways to Die
• Three-pole diagrams for assessing demography
• Hunting techniques
• An example using data from the African buffalo
• Which is attritional and which is catastrophic?
• Both are attritional