Mortality of cattle on a desert range: paleobiological implications

Mortality of domestic livestock can reveal circumstances of death of interest to the taphonomist and paleobiologist. We present a case that involves a dieoff and incipient burial of cattle at the end of a severe drought in a ranch in north-western Sonora (Mexico). Regional environmental crisis, such as drought, have been suggested to explain massive death, but we contend that droughts suddenly broken by a severe storm or storms and steady rains would be more stressful. As a result, in arid lands mammals could have accumulated in fossil deposits in short bursts through time.