Differential avian skeletal part distribution: Explaining the abundance of wings

An abundance of wings relative to other skeletal parts has been observed in avifaunal assemblages from many different types of archaeological sites from numerous locations around the world and of various time periods. Both cultural and post-depositional hypotheses have been proposed to explain this pattern. One of the most powerful explanations to account for this phenomenon is differential survival of avian elements due to bone density. Although bone density has not been systematically measured for all types of birds, I test this hypothesis using predictions derived from observations about the functional anatomy of birds using archaeological data form numerous sites in the Pacific Northwest Coast (USA). I conclude that the density hypothesis is not supported at these sites, and that other hypotheses must be examined further.