Overview of computational methods in taphonomy based on the combination of bibliometric analysis and natural language.

Artificial intelligence tools are new in taphonomy and are growing fast. They are being used mainly to investigate bone surface marks. In order to investigate this subject, a bibliometric study was made to understand the growing rate of this intersectional field, the future, and gaps in the field until now. From Scopus and Google Scholar metadata, graphs were made to describe the data, and inferential statistics were made by regression with the Ordinary Least Squares method. Exploratory analysis with word clouds, topic modeling, and natural language processing with Latent Dirichlet Allocation as a method were also made using the entire corpus from the papers. From the first register until 2023, we found eight articles in Scopus and 32 in Google Scholar; the majority of the studies and the most cited were from Spain. The studies are growing fast from 2016 to 2018, and the regression shows that growth can be maintained in the coming years. Exploratory analysis shows the most frequent words are marks, models, data, and bone. Topic modeling shows that the studies are highly concentrated on similar problems and the tools to solve them, revealing that there is much more to explore with computational tools in taphonomy and paleontology as well.

Variations in dietary patterns of living sloths revealed by finite element analysis of jaws.

Although extinct sloths exhibited a wide range of dietary habits, modes of locomotion, and occupied various niches across the Americas, modern sloths are considered quite similar in their habits. The dietary habits of living sloths can be directly observed in the wild, and understanding the mechanical behavior of their jaws during chewing through finite element analysis (FEA) provides a valuable validation tool for comparative analysis with their extinct counterparts. In this study, we used FEA to simulate the mechanical behavior of sloth mandibles under lateral mastication loads, using it as a proxy for oral processing. Our research focused on the six extant sloth species to better understand their diets and validate the use of FEA for studying their extinct relatives. We found that all living sloths have the predominancy of low-stress areas in their mandibles but with significant differences. Choloepus didactylus had larger high-stress areas, which could be linked to a reduced need for processing tougher foods as an opportunistic generalist. Bradypus variegatus and Choloepus hoffmanni are shown to be similar, displaying large low-stress areas, indicating greater oral processing capacity in a seasonal and more competitive environment. Bradypus torquatus, Bradypus pygmaeus, and Bradypus tridactylus exhibited intermediary processing patterns, which can be linked to a stable food supply in more stable environments and a reduced requirement for extensive oral processing capacity. This study sheds light on extant sloths' dietary adaptations and has implications for understanding the ecological roles and evolutionary history of their extinct counterparts.