Throughout this year (2006) Sebastián Muñoz and Mariana Mondini, of CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas, the national science and technology council in Argentina), will be starting a new lab called Laboratorio de Zooarqueología y Tafonomía, focused on zooarchaeological and taphonomic problems of the arid areas in Southern South America. It is being funded by CONICET, and is based at the Museo de Antropología of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (see below).

The aim of this new lab is to develop different lines of research on archaeological problems of Southern South America based on the faunal record. Zooarchaeology and taphonomy at this wide geographical scale need some further development, and this lab aims at helping advance in this direction. More specifically, it will be hosting research that helps understanding the general features and trends in the relationships of humans and Neotropical faunas, as well as the taphonomic processes characterising this archaeofaunal record. The lab is also aimed at developing more general methodological and theoretical aspects of these disciplines.