Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30872658›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2019

Wild sea otter mussel pounding leaves archaeological traces.

Michael Haslam, Jessica Fujii, Sarah Espinosa, Karl Mayer, Katherine Ralls, M Tim Tinker, Natalie Uomini

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Michael HaslamIndependent Researcher, Putney Bridge Road, London, SW15 2PA, UK.
Jessica FujiiMonterey Bay Aquarium, 886 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA, 93940, USA. JFujii@mbayaq.org.
Sarah EspinosaDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Long Marine Lab, 115 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, USA.
Karl MayerMonterey Bay Aquarium, 886 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA, 93940, USA.
Katherine RallsCenter for Conservation Genomics, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, 3001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20008, USA.
M Tim TinkerDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Long Marine Lab, 115 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, USA.
Natalie UominiDepartment of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745, Jena, Germany. traduck@gmail.com.ORCID 0000-0002-9898-6415

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Wild sea otters (Enhydra lutris) are the only marine mammals that habitually use stones while foraging, using them to break open hard-shelled foods like marine snails and bivalves. However, the physical effects of this behavior on local environments are unknown. We show that sea otters pounding mussels on tidally emergent rocks leave distinct material traces, which can be recognized using methods from archaeology. We observed sea otters pounding mussels at the Bennett Slough Culverts site, California, USA, over a l0-year period. Sea otters repeatedly used the same rocks as anvils, which resulted in distinctive wear patterns on the rocks and accumulations of broken mussel shells, all fractured in a characteristic way, below them. Our results raise the potential for discovery of similar sea otter pounding sites in areas that no longer have resident sea otter populations.

Indexed as

ArchaeologyAnimalsAnimal ShellsBivalviaCaliforniaGeologic SedimentsOttersPlant Leaves

Identifiers

PMID30872658
PMCPMC6418163

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.