Raining more than cats and dogs: Looking back at field studies of noncultural animal-bone occurrences

This paper summarizes the context and results of long-term actualistic field studies of mammal bones at carnivore kills and mass death sites on three continents; it also updates analyses and data from the work. The main topics are variability - such as in bone representation and carnivore effects on bones - and the possible ecological implications of the variability. An important feature of bone rains is their punctuated nature, especially the disproportionate inputs from infrequent mass deaths such as drownings in flood events or drought-caused starvation.