Phoretic oribatids (Acari, Oribatida) as bird bioindicators? Insights from the site of Tabacalera (Gijón, N. Spain, 6th-7th centuries AD)
| Autor: | Laura Llorente-Rodríguez, Arturo Morales-Muñiz, Andrea González-Ibáñez |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
010506 paleontology
biology Ecology 010502 geochemistry & geophysics biology.organism_classification 01 natural sciences Geography Feather visual_art Phoresis visual_art.visual_art_medium Assemblage (archaeology) Acari Arthropod Oribatida Bioindicator 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Earth-Surface Processes Global biodiversity |
| Zdroj: | Quaternary International. 543:93-98 |
| ISSN: | 1040-6182 |
| Popis: | Bird remains are rare on archaeological sites yet often crucial to address a multitude of questions, both cultural and biological. In this paper we argue that oribatid mites living on bird feathers, scales and nests may prove useful to infer not only bird presence but occasionally their breeding at a given site in the absence of their remains. Although oribatids are for all purposes stationary, a good number of species practice non-parasitic phoresis on birds that allows the mites to disperse over large distances. The specificity of the interrelationship, thus the quality of the bioindicator signal, is probably time-dependent, so that the longer the more specific the link between the vertebrate and the arthropod becomes. Oribatids are useful bioindicators because of the intensive sclerotization of their exoskeleton that insures their preservation in archaeological deposits. In this paper inferences about the bird assemblage retrieved at the Early Medieval site of Tabacalera (Gijon, Spain) are explored from the standpoint of the phoretic oribatids recovered in the deposits. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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