Table 1.
List of newly analyzed isotopic values of carnivores reported in this study.
Table 2.
List of newly analyzed isotopic values of rodents and hare reported in this study.
Fig 1.
Map of sites included in this study. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3460300 (CC BY 4.0 license).
Fig 2.
Dietary sources in the isospace.
Dietary sources calculated with SIBER. Groups are named by the most abundant taxon. Dashed lines show the convex hull of the groups, while collard ellipses show the calculated Standard Ellipse Area (SEA).
Fig 3.
Trophic niches in the Middle Palaeolithic.
Calculated trophic niches of foxes (Triangles) and large carnivores (shapes) from the Middle Palaeolithic with SIBER. Dashed lines in the fox niches as well as light collard area in the large carnivore group show the convex hull (outline of the niches). The solid lines in the fox niches and the dark collard ellipses in the carnivore group show the calculated Standard Ellipse Area (SEA) and reflect the core niches, based on Bayesian statistics. In the lower part of the figure is the reconstructed diet given. Diet proportions calculated with MixSIAR of each fox niche and the large carnivore group. Solid lines show the 5 to 95% confidence interval, full boxes show the 25 to 75% confidence interval and vertical black line shows the median value.
Fig 4.
Trophic niches in the Aurignacian.
Calculated trophic niches of foxes (Triangles) and large carnivores (shapes) from the Aurignacian with SIBER. Dashed lines in the fox niches as well as light collard area in the large carnivore group show the convex hull (outline of the niches). The solid lines in the fox niches and the dark collard ellipses in the carnivore group show the calculated Standard Ellipse Area (SEA) and reflect the core niches, based on Bayesian statistics. In the lower part of the figure is the reconstructed diet given. Diet proportions calculated with MixSIAR of each fox niche and the large carnivore group. Solid lines show the 5 to 95% confidence interval, full boxes show the 25 to 75% confidence interval and vertical black line shows the median value.
Fig 5.
Trophic niches in the Aurignacian.
Calculated trophic niches of foxes (Triangles) and large carnivores (shapes) from the Gravettian with SIBER. Dashed lines in the fox niches as well as light collard area in the large carnivore group show the convex hull (outline of the niches). The solid lines in the fox niches and the dark collard ellipses in the carnivore group show the calculated Standard Ellipse Area (SEA) and reflect the core niches, based on Bayesian statistics. In the lower part of the figure is the reconstructed diet given. Diet proportions calculated with MixSIAR of each fox niche and the large carnivore group. Solid lines show the 5 to 95% confidence interval, full boxes show the 25 to 75% confidence interval and vertical black line shows the median value.
Table 3.
Calculated niche overlap between large carnivores and high δ15N foxes, based on SIBER.
Table 4.
Reconstructed dietary proportions for the different fox niches and large carnivore groups.
Fig 6.
Summary figure for the commensal fox hypothesis.
The blue area marks the impact of humans on dietary resources. For low δ15N foxes, humans had no influence, while for intermediate δ15N foxes they had a very strong influence (restricted diet). High δ15N foxes may be influenced (e.g. by scavenging at kill sites) or may be of natural origin (e.g. by scavenging from megafauna that died naturally).
Table 5.
Commensal foxes in other archaeological sites.