dealt with animals, and their effects can help avoid many potential ecological problems. This specifically includes problems involving wildlife management. For example, one of the questions that wildlife preservationists ask is whether they should keep animals facing extinction in several smaller areas, or in one larger area. Based on zooarchaeological evidence, they found that animals that are split up into several smaller areas are more likely to go extinct. Techniques Taphonomy One of the issues to which zooarchaeologists pay close attention is taphonomy. Techniques used in the study of taphonomy include researching how items are buried and deposited at an archaeological site, what the conditions are that aid in the preservation of these items, and how these items get destroyed, all a part of what is referred to by archaeologist Michael Brian Schiffer as behavioral archaeology. One important aspect of taphonomy is assessing how a specimen became damaged; understanding the taphonomy of a faunal assemblage can explain how and why bones were damaged. One source of damage to animal bones is humans. Cut marks on animal bones provide evidence for butchering. Fractures, such as by percussion impact and spiral fracture on a bone can suggest that it was processed by humans for its marrow, minerals, and nutrients. Other human processes that affect bones include burning and damage that occurs during archaeological excavations. Non-human damage to bones includes interspecies damage, damage from raptors, damage from rodents, damage from fungi, environmental weathering, and polishing. Distinguishing different types of damage to animal bones is a tedious and complex process that requires background in multiple scientific fields. Some of the physical damage on bones can be seen with the naked eye, but a lens with 10x magnification and good lighting is necessary for seeing most damage. Identification and taxonomy Identification is integral to the archaeological analysis of animal remains. Identification of animal remains requires a combination of anatomy, taxonomy, and studies of archaeological context. The ability to identify a piece of bone requires knowing what element (bone in the body) it is, and to what animal the bone belongs. The latter is referred to as taxonomy, which is used to sort animals into different groups. Zooarchaeology uses Linnean nomenclature, which includes varying degrees of specificity in regards to the species. Linnaean nomenclature (Linnaean taxonomy) is used because it allows archaeologists to identify and show the genetic and morphological relationships between species. These relationships are