Dear Jacqui,
For micromammals usually the best place to start are the molars
(occlusal surfaces) which are highly diagnostic at least to the genus
level. This should give you a pretty good idea on which taxa are in the
assemblage. Once you've restricted the range of taxa start by comparing
post cranial long bone and possibly pelvis specimens to this range. Some
taxa (e.g., mole rats) are much more identifiable than others (e.g.,
among murids) by post crania. In general, though, some ID's can be made
providing you have specimens that are pretty much complete, for example,
the proximal femur including some of the shaft with the 3rd trochanter;
and distal humerii have diagnostic landmarks such as a supracondyloid
formen in some taxa.
Cheers,
Lior
Jacqui Huntley wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> You're such a helpful and responsive bunch that I hope you'll also be kind to a
> lurking botanist!
>
> Can you provide some basic literature references that would of use starting in
> identification of small mammals - the types that lurk around granaries. Durham
> has an excellent reference colllection but something to help me get into which
> bones it's even worth trying to identify would be a good start. I assume not
> vertebrae or ribs for examples but what about long bones? It's especially in
> relation to small numbers of such bones that I have in bulk samples from
> Vindolanda granaries - so, Roman military.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help,
>
> best wishes
> Jacqui
> __________________________
> Jacqui Huntley
> English Heritage NE Regional Science Advisor,
>
> Honorary Research Associate
> Department of Archaeology,
> University of Durham
>
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