ABSTRACT
The hunting and scavenging debate in paleoanthropology is important for resolving more fundamental issues in human evolution. Dismissal of scavenging by hominids based on the extremely rare scavenging of the most predatory nonhuman primates ignores the very possibility of unique, large-carcass, tool-mediated carnivory on the part of early hominids. The power of each line of zooarchaeological evidence depends on the development and appropriate application of specific taphonomic models derived from experimental and naturalistic observations in the modern world. Corresponding bones from animals of different size and age vary with respect to durability and nutritional value. Age profiles have been used in two ways in attempts to distinguish hunting and scavenging in the fossil record. R. G. Klein suggests that attritional profiles indicate an inability to capture prime age adults, or a predatory preference for easier, prey. Hominids scavenging from predators who prefer easier prey might also produce attritional profiles.
