Faunal assemblage

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Faunal Assemblage is the archaeological or paleontological term for a group of associated animal fossils found together in a given stratum.

The principle of faunal succession is used in biostratigraphy to determine each biostratigraphic unit, or biozone. The biostratigraphic unit being a section of geological strata that is defined on the basis of its characteristic fossil taxa or faunal assemblage.

For example, in East Africa, a distinctive group of animal species, mostly pigs, 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.

[edit] 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, ISBN 0-315-78415-6
Rogers, Alan R. (2000) "On Equifinality in Faunal Analysis" American Antiquity 65(4): p.709
Cabtree, Pam J. (2005) Exploring Prehistory: How archaeology reveals our past McGraw-Hill, Boston p. 450, ISBN 0-07-297814-7