Ecomorphology
Ecomorphic analysis examines anatomical characteristics that are related to an organism’s ecology. Zooarchaeologists increasingly use this relationship and methods from ecology to examine skeletal morphology of extinct organisms and infer habitat preference. In the distant past, this serves the purpose of decoupling paleoecological reconstructions from inferences based on taxonomic relationships between extinct and extant taxa. Antelope limb bones are commonly preserved at palaeontological and archaeological sites. They can present evidence of hominin collection and foraging behaviour in the form of cutmarks and percussion damage. Antelope bones from hominin sites are thus both directly and, through spatial association, indirectly related to the palaeoecology of sympatric and synchronic hominins.
