Posted by Carmen_Ting on July 01, 2020

By Laerke Recht, associate editor in Zooarchaeology

As my first contribution to this newsletter, I want to highlight two new zooarchaeology-related things that I am excited about:

First, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences has a new topical volume out focussed on birds. Birds tend not to receive their due attention (and their small bones are easily missed during excavations), so this is a very welcome volume, with papers presenting case studies from a range of sites and periods. Avian Zooarchaeology: Prehistoric and Historical Insights can be found here:

https://link.springer.com/journal/12520/topicalCollection/AC_95068cc6b9df1724235fd15d5ea3540e/page/1

Panthera tigris and Carpomys undescr. sp. (undescribed novel species)

Second, Dr. Janine Ochoa recently successfully defended her PhD thesis at the University of Cambridge on the topic of Island Biodiversity and Human Palaeoecology in the Philippines: A zooarchaeological study of Late Quaternary faunas. It includes evidence for a previously unknown (and now extinct) giant cloud rat. A summary of the thesis can be found here:

https://oatd.org/oatd/search?q=id%3A%22oai%3Awww.repository.cam.ac.uk%3A1810%2F299009%22