26-4 Assessing the Impact of Ontogenetic Development on the Formation and Variation of Taphonomic Signatures in Vertebrate Remains

Session: Interdisciplinary Paleontology: New approaches to solving complex paleontological problems (Posters)

Presenting Author:

Authors:

Abstract:

The disproportionately low number of juvenile specimens in the fossil record constrains the ontogenetic research on vertebrates that can be conducted, and, in turn, limits broader interpretations of prehistoric organismal biology, phylogenetic relationships, and evolutionary history. Studies of this disparity have suggested that this is likely primarily driven by age-specific mortality rates or taphonomic bias. We are studying the role of taphonomic bias in shaping age distributions within the fossil record through a comparative analysis of vertebrate remains from the White River Group in Toadstool Geological Park in Nebraska and modern vertebrate assemblages from the Pilcomayo Megafan in western Paraguay. Both study areas represent aggrading fluvial environments, which have a high sediment load and are ideal environments for fast burial and eventual fossilization. By comparing relative abundance and elemental representation between the fossil and modern data sets, we can identify the taphonomic biases and preservation patterns that may differentially affect vertebrate skeletal elements across age classes.

Due to increased porosity and cartilaginousness of juvenile bone, it is expected that juvenile remains will exhibit greater degrees of weathering and abrasion, as well as a lesser degree of completeness relative to adult specimens in the same assemblage. Systematic differences in weathering, abrasion, and completeness between age classes in the White River Group suggest that patterns of bias, while interpretable, are tied to local depositional environments. Ground-truthing these patterns with modern data from comparable environments in Paraguay will allow us to assess the genesis of such biases and will clarify whether the scarcity of juvenile vertebrate fossils reflects biological reality or preservational distortion. Such findings offer insight into taphonomic processes within the fields of zooarchaeology and biological anthropology, including implications for understanding the preservation of hominid biology and recognizing taphonomic biases in reconstructing age-specific mortality rates within similar assemblages.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 4, 2026

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026RM-14666

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