Open sepulchers and closed boundaries? Biodistance analysis of cemetery structure and postmarital residence in the late prehispanic Andes.

Objectives: In the Late Intermediate Period Andes (AD 1100-1450), the proliferation of above-ground sepulchers reconfigured social boundaries within and between communities engaged in protracted conflict. However, the biosocial dimensions of these mortuary practices, and their implications for conflict and alliance formation, remain unexplored. This study examines patterns of phenotypic variation to: (1) evaluate if open sepulchers were organized on the basis of biological relatedness, and (2) explore if sex-specific phenotypic variability conforms to models of postmarital residence.

Mammalian niche conservation through deep time.

Climate change alters species distributions, causing plants and animals to move north or to higher elevations with current warming. Bioclimatic models predict species distributions based on extant realized niches and assume niche conservation. Here, we evaluate if proxies for niches (i.