archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

a faunal assemblage is a group of associated animal

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s found together in a given

stratum In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

. The

principle of faunal succession The principle of faunal succession, also known as the law of faunal succession, is based on the observation that sedimentary rock strata contain fossilized flora and fauna, and that these fossils succeed each other vertically in a specific, rel ...

is used in

biostratigraphy Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock Stratum, strata by using the fossil assemblages contained within them.Hine, Robert. “Biostratigraphy.” ''Oxford Reference: Dictiona ...

to determine each biostratigraphic unit, or

biozone In biostratigraphy, biostratigraphic units or biozones are intervals of geological strata that are defined on the basis of their characteristic fossil taxa, as opposed to a lithostratigraphic unit which is defined by the lithological properties of ...

. The biostratigraphic unit being a

section Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sign ...

of geological strata that is defined on the basis of its characteristic fossil

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

or faunal assemblage. For example, in

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

, a distinctive group of animal species, mostly

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...

s, is characteristic of the fossils preserved from a particular period of time. This faunal assemblage has been used effectively to chronologically correlate the East African early hominid sites. Faunal assemblages are useful in determining the foraging patterns of hominids. One such assemblage at

Lang Rongrien Lang may refer to: *Lang (surname), a surname of independent Germanic or Chinese origin Places * Lang Island (Antarctica), East Antarctica * Lang Nunatak, Antarctica * Lang Sound, Antarctica * Lang Park, a stadium in Brisbane, Australia * Lang ...

in Thailand indicated a hunter-gatherer group which was highly flexible when it came to finding food. They relied heavily on turtle and tortoise to supply the meat portion of their diet when hunting large game was unpredictable. This assemblage also suggested the paleoenvironment was drier and cooler than today because of a distinct lack of pig bones. Mudar K and Anderson D 2007. New evidence for Southeast Asian Pleistocene foraging economies: faunal remains from the early levels of Lang Rongrien rockshelter, Krabi, Thailand. Asian Perspectives 46(2)

References

* Dawson, Peter Colin (1993) ''From death assemblage to fossil assemblage understanding the nature of intra-site and inter-site variability in faunal assemblages'' National Library of Canada, Ottawa, * Rogers, Alan R. (2000) "On Equifinality in Faunal Analysis" ''American Antiquity'' 65(4): p.709 * Crabtree, Pam J. (2005) ''Exploring Prehistory: How archaeology reveals our past'' McGraw-Hill, Boston p. 450,

External links

"A Marine Faunal Assemblage"
Zooarchaeology Paleozoology Biostratigraphy Fossil record Fossil record of animals {{paleo-stub