Measurements of bite traces on bones

<p><span><span><span><span><span>C</span></span><span><span>arnivores make traces on bones with their teeth when feeding. </span></span><span><span>A</span></span><span><span> true predatory bite trace (</span></span><span><span><span>predichnia</span></span></span><span><span>) form</span></span><span><span>s</span></span><span><span> when a predator catches and kills its prey or attempts to do so. Both</span></span> <span><span>predators and scavengers may leave their non-predatory feeding traces during </span></span><span><span><span>postmortem</span></span></span><span><span> food processing. Despite the interpretative uncertainties as to the ethology such ichnofossils may represent, the bite traces have been traditionally classified as </span></span><span><span><span>predichnia</span></span></span><span><span> – traces of predation.</span></span><span><span> Previously, t</span></span><span><span>here was no alternative ethological category available for workers to classify them. </span></span><span><span>The p</span></span><span><span>resent paper fills that gap and describes tooth-made ichnofossils from the continental Upper Triassic Grabowa Formation of southern Poland. It discusses modes the serration and striations might have formed along </span></span><span><em><span>Linichnus </span></em></span><span><span><span>edges</span></span></span><span><span>, potential makers of the trace fossils, feeding strategies and food-processing behaviors the </span></span><span><span><span>ichnites</span></span></span><span><span> may represent. All the </span></span><span><span><span>bite traces</span></span></span><span><span> are thought to </span></span><span><span>act as a</span></span><span><span> record of </span></span><span><span><span>carnivorous</span></span></span><span><span> behaviors and are classified as </span></span><span><span><span>sarcophagichnia</span></span></span><span><span>, a new ethological category (traces of feeding on a body). Finally, all of the studied bite traces were likely inflicted </span></span><span><span><span>postmortem</span></span></span><span><span> and are classified as </span></span><span><span><span>necrophagichnia</span></span></span><span><span> (traces of feeding on an already dea</span></span><span><span>d</span></span><span><span> body), most likely produced by scavengers in the studied cases. Data on recent carnivores links these </span></span><span><span><span>ichnites</span></span></span><span><span> with </span></span><span><span><span>postmortem</span></span></span><span><span> food processing behaviors</span></span><span><span>,</span></span> <span><span><span>like</span></span></span><span><span> dismembering and defleshing. </span></span><span><span>S</span></span><span><span>cavenging could</span></span><span><span>, in fact, have been</span></span><span><span> a preferred carnivorous feeding strategy in </span></span><span><span>the</span></span><span><span> seasonal Norian climate of the area. </span></span><span><span><span>Dry seasons </span></span></span><span><span>could </span></span><span><span>have p</span></span><span><span><span>erhaps</span></span></span> <span><span>increase</span></span><span><span>d</span></span><span><span> vertebrate mortality rates and provide</span></span><span><span>d</span></span> <span><span>plenty of</span></span><span><span> carcasses for carnivores to feed on.</span></span></span></span></span></p>