ArchaeoCafé - Episode 2-03 - A little bird told me: An interview with Kari Prassack

ArchaeoCafé

In this episode, we talk with Kari Prassack about using bird remains to reconstruct past environments and landscapes, about the overlap between archaeology and palaeontology, and about her work in engaging the public and generating interest in research and science.

Episode notes are available on the ArchaeoCafé website.
http://archaeocafe.kvasirpublishing.com/archaeocafe-podcast-ep-203-prassack

About Kari Prassack

Dr. Prassack is a vertebrate paleoecologist and zooarchaeologist with a current taxonomic focus on Pliocene-Recent carnivorans and birds. Her research incorporates ecological method and theory, controlled and naturalistic neotaphonomic observations, and paleobiogeographical data to address the ecology of extinct taxa and changes in terrestrial vertebrate paleocommunities across time and space. She currently works at the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument where she is the lead paleontologist. She is also the project leader of the Hagerman Paleontology, Environments and Tephrochronology (PET) Project, a co-principal investigator of the Předmostí Canid Project, and a research affiliate on the Olduvai Geochronology and Archaeology Project.

Web:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kari_Prassack
https://nps-gov.academia.edu/KariPrassack
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rItepKgAAAAJ

Some useful terminology and links

Zooarchaeology
Also "zooarchaeology" or among archaeologists "faunal analysis". The study of non-human animals in archaeological contexts. This field of research often combines the studies of archaeology and zoology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooarchaeology

Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument
A national park near Hagerman, Idaho, U.S.A. It is internationally significant for its paleontological resources. It includes the world's richest fossil deposits, in quality, quantity, and diversity, from the late Pliocene epoch. Many of its fossils represent the last vestiges of species that existed before the last Ice Age, the Pleistocene, and the earliest 'modern' flora and fauna. Hagerman Fossil Beds is one of North America's most important sites for Pliocene birds.
https://www.nps.gov/hafo/index.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagerman_Fossil_Beds_National_Monument

Tephrochronology
A technique that uses layers of tephra (volcanic ash from a single eruption) as chronological markers within layers of soil. Each volcanic event produces ash with a unique chemical "fingerprint" that allows the deposit to be identified across the area affected by fallout. Once the volcanic event has been independently dated, the tephra layer will act as time marker anywhere it is encountered. Layers beneath the ash will be older, and layers above will be younger. If tephra layers can be identified both above and below a layer of interest then the age of the contents of that layer (for example, artefacts or fossils) must be between the ages of the two tephra layers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tephrochronology
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/hafo-paleo-ash-beds.htm

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