Naturalistic observations on the disarticulation of False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens) carcasses: fifteen years after

BORELLA, F; BORRERO, L.A

Journal of Taphonomy

The Palaeontological Network Foundation

Lugar: Madrid; Año: 2017 vol. 15 p. 45 - 58

1696-0815

Results from taphonomic observations made on a concentration of False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens) resulting from a March 1989 mass stranding of 181 animals on both sides of the Strait of Magellan are presented. Frequencies of articulated elements observed 15 years later on the coasts of Bahía Lomas, Tierra del Fuego (Chile) were quantified according with Hill (1979 a, 1979b), and a ranking of natural bone disarticulation for whales is proposed. This ranking was made on the basis of skeletons from only one species, but given the morphological similarities of Cetaceae it is possible to suggest its application to similar sized odontoceti.Together with other useful taphonomic criteria (weathering and preservation), these results can be used to disentangle the origin of whale bone accumulations at coastal archaeological sites in different parts of the world and also to estimate the time of burial of zooarchaeological assemblages.