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Colleagues,
A recent visit to a bookstore resulted in the discovery
of an item which may be of interest to some subscribers of this list, especially
taphonomists, paleo-artists, etc. This book is a MUST for anyone interested in
large animal skeletons and their disarticulation patterns during
decay/scavenging. The book (citation below) is a curious eclectic collection of
black and white photographs and drawings largely arranged in a scrapbook format
with many hundreds of photographs of African animals (dead and alive), local
people/history, explorers, big game hunters (then and more recent), pictures of
American president Teddy Roosevelt hunting in Africa, etc. Also included is
various text, including material by (and pictures of) Karen Blixen (of "Out
of Africa" fame). The main theme of the book is the decline of the big game
hunter culture in Africa. This was all of just casual interest to me and I was
ready to put the book back on the shelf, until I reached Chapter 6 entitled:
"Nor Dread nor Hope Attend".
Here is presented an amazing array of 175 mostly closeup
top view photographs taken from an airplane of mostly Elephant carcasses in
various stages of decay (recently dead, articulated/disarticulated skeletons).
Other pictures in the book would bring this number close to 200 different dead
Elephants. Most are skeletonized. It would seem the small plane had the motor
turned off and silently swooped down for the picture, as in some cases,
scavenging Lions and Vultures remain undisturbed on the carcass. Because of the
large number of pictures, this book is an excellent source of information on
Elephant carcass taphonomic processes. I am surprised it has not been cited (at
least I've never seen it) within the paleontological community and thus bring it
to your attention. Apparently most of these animals died of starvation and
thirst around 1977 after being poorly managed in Tsavo National Park- a place
intended for their protection. It does not seem that these animals were poached
as many still retain their tusks.
Of taphonomic interest is the body posture of the
Elephants- many have the limbs tightly drawn up to the torso in a
"swimming" or "galloping"-like pose. Late Cretaceous
hadrosaurs also are often found in this classic "death pose". Once I
was told that some animals (Elephants included), when weakened and death
imminent, will preferentially lie on one side of the body vs. the other. I
scanned the book for any such pattern, but did not seen any. Animals were found
lying on the left and right sides almost equally and a few seem to have
collapsed onto their bellies.
IMPORTANT!! APPARENTLY ONLY THE 1988 EDITION HAS THE
ELEPHANT CARCASS PICTURES IN CHAPTER 6. I am not aware of any subsequent
editions containing this chapter, but the 1963, 1965, 1977 apparently do not.
The citation:
Beard, Peter
THE END OF THE GAME.
Chronicle Books, San Fransisco (they have a
website: www.chronbooks.com)
1988 edition. no pagination.
ISBN 0-87701-521-X
ISBN 0-87701-516-3 (paperback).
My paperback copy in brand new condition cost $24.95
American.
Trust this will be of interest,
Darren Tanke, Tech. I
Dinosaur Research Program Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Drumheller, AB, Canada and Senior Editor, Paleopathology and Recent Dento-Osteopathology Bibliography; see homepage at: http://dns.magtech.ab.ca/dtanke |