For researchers studying wildlife distributions of the past, the assignment of faunal depictions and remains to species can often present considerable challenges. Regrettably, many studies do not systematically consider all options and sources of evidence and, as a result, questionable identifications are widespread in the literature, which compromises the trustworthiness of meta-analyses of human-animal interactions in an environmental context. Here we present a cross-disciplinary 3-step approach to species identification of ancient animal depictions and remains featuring habitat suitability modelling from the discipline of spatial ecology. By applying the protocol in a case study of selected images of wild bovids from Predynastic and Dynastic Egypt, we provide evidence that the zoogeographic origin of the faunal elements now locally extinct were in the Mediterranean and Sudanian bioregions without the need to invoke also the more distant Somalian and Zambezian bioregions as previously suggested. Such more moderate range shifts may primarily have promoted cultural exchange between Egypt and neighbouring communities in the Levant and Nubia, which is consistent with the archaeological evidence. The study highlights the potential of habitat suitability modelling to contribute to the identification of ambiguous species representations and faunal remains from the past, which in turn can allow testing of hypotheses on a wide range of central archaeological questions pertaining to introduction of animals and indigenous domestication, cultural exchange and trade, as well as human migration and dispersal.

中文翻译：

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应用栖息地适宜性模型来确定考古学中模棱两可的动物描述的物种身份：对古埃及野生牛科动物的新见解


对于研究过去野生动物分布的研究人员来说，将动物群描述和遗骸分配给物种通常会带来相当大的挑战。遗憾的是，许多研究并没有系统地考虑所有选项和证据来源，因此，文献中普遍存在可疑的身份，这损害了环境背景下人与动物互动的荟萃分析的可信度。在这里，我们提出了一种跨学科的 3 步方法，用于古代动物描述和遗骸的物种识别，其特点是空间生态学学科的栖息地适宜性建模。通过将该协议应用于来自前王朝和王朝埃及的野生牛科动物选定图像的案例研究中，我们提供了证据，证明现在当地灭绝的动物群元素的动物地理起源位于地中海和苏丹生物区，而不需要援引更遥远的索马里和赞比西亚生物区如前所述。这种更温和的范围变化可能主要促进了埃及与黎凡特和努比亚邻近社区之间的文化交流，这与考古证据一致。该研究强调了栖息地适宜性建模的潜力，有助于识别模棱两可的物种表示和过去的动物遗骸，这反过来又可以测试与动物引进和土著驯化、文化交流和贸易以及人类迁移和扩散有关的广泛核心考古问题的假设。