An integral approach to the study of bromalites. Late Quaternary and neo-taphonomic case studies from arid South America

Bromalites are fossil traces of organisms, consisting of material from their digestive system, including coprolites, regurgitalites, consumulites, pabulites and digestilites (Hunt, 1992; Hunt and Lucas, 2021). As such, they informabout the interactions between bromalite-producing organisms and others, as well as between them and theen vironment generally, at a relatively fine temporal and spatial resolution. Yet, bromalites have often beendismissed in paleontological and, especially, archaeological research. This work discusses the relevance ofbromalites as sources of paleoecological and even cultural information, and the importance of integratingmultiple lines of evidence and different scales of analysis in the taphonomic study of bromalites. To do so, itreviews the different proxies that can be analysed, and illustrates this integral approach with examples of late Quaternary and modern contexts from an ongoing project in arid South America. It intends to show the potential of such a multiproxy and multiscale approach in order to elicit as much information as possible from these palaeobiological reservoirs.
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