Taphonomy of Late Pleistocene faunas at Fuego–Patagonia

The taphonomic analysis of faunas associated with early human occupations of Fuego–Patagonia clearly shows how complicated their depositional histories were. The same places often were alternately selected by humans and carnivores. Humans likely displaced carnivores from those places, but the material remains from the human use of the sites probably is mixed with those from previous carnivore occupations. Cases of occupational succession also exist that involve other animals. Again, averaged samples result. The physical association of bones and artifacts cannot be used uncritically as proof of a behavioral association between humans and their prey in the absence of taphonomic analysis.