## 3 Results and Discussion
### Phytolith Composition, Taphonomy and Seasonality
The short cell morphologies comprise mostly rondels (Figure 6a), although bilobates and polylobates from the Pooideae grass subfamily are also common in variable amounts, along with short cell towers (elongate) which are commonly produced in the Hordeum genus [10] and are also present in the pig assemblages representing human manipulation of fodder (barley complete grains and/or grinded into flour). Grass infloresances were represented mainly by decorated elongate dentate (echinate) and dendritics in addition to epidermal cells such as papillate and hairs (Figure 6b,c). Epidermal appendages produced by grass leaves and culms, including stomata, acute bulbosus (trichomes), and bulliforms, were also common in all the samples in variable amounts (Figures 3-5). Furthermore, these diagnostic morphotypes derived from the floral parts of grasses were abundantly noted among the cow and pig samples through the different periods of the year, whereas these are almost absent among the sheep dung samples collected in winter (coded as AN-F and TD-F samples, Figure 4). In addition to grass phytoliths, mostly short cells, polylobates, and elongate sinuate or psilate (smooth), characteristic morphotypes produced by dicotyledonous plants were also common among the winter sheep dung pellets, including epidermal appendages such as hairs and their bases, as well as irregular multicellular jigsaw phytoliths (Figure 6d,e), therefore indicative of diet regimes more prone to browsing on the leaves and bark of shrubs and trees. Although all of these variations and changes in morphotype composition are relative, it is clear that the phytolith records from dung pellets from free-ranging grazers, represented by sheep in the current study, could be potentially used as seasonality indicators. Of particular note is the identification of diagnostic spheroid echinate phytoliths produced by the leaves of palms (Arecaceae) among the pig dung samples from both indoor and outdoor penning areas in Es Capell de Ferro (Figure 6f). During all the sampling seasons, we observed how adult pigs pluck and chew the leaves of three palms (_Phoenix canariensis_) naturally growing on the stabling floor, indicating the ingestion of the palm phytoliths through the mouth with their saliva (Figure 2g,h). According to our informants, the reason for chewing the leaves of palms remains unknown. Although pigs eat calorie-dense foods their ability to extract energy from cellulose digestion is less efficient than in ruminant guts, oil-rich fibrous palm residues are reported as energy source in pig feeding fattening diets [59; 60; 61]. This particular case illustrates the non-deliberate inclusion within dung of other ingested plant microfossil remains rather than fodder. Figure 6: Photomicrographs of phytoliths and dung spherulites identified in the samples (200\(\times\) or 400\(\times\)). (**a**) multicelled (articulated) elongate psilate (smooth) phytoliths with short cell rondels and epidermal appendage acute bulbosus (trichomes) from the leaves of Pooideae grasses, sheep dung, sample 7-AN-S; (**b**) multicellular (articulated) dendritics with _papilate_, along with disarticulated dendritics (arrows) from grass infloresances, pig dung, sample 18-CF-S; (**c**) multicellular (articulated) dendritics, cow dung, sample 6-AN-S; (**d**) epidermal appendage hair from dicotyledonous leaves, sheep dung, sample 29-TD-F; (**e**) epidermal appendage hair base from dicotyledonous leaves, cow dung, sample 6-AN-S; (**f**) spheroid echinate phytolith (sp) along with fragmented dendritics (de) and a short cell (shc), pig dung, sample 22-CF-S; (**g**) darkened dung spherulite at XPL, cow dung, sample 56-AN-J; (**h**) cluster of dung spherulites at XPL (none darkened), sheep dung, sample 29-TD-F. Overall, the morphological results indicated that most of the phytoliths derived from monocotyledonous plants and particularly grasses (around 90% of all the counted morphotypes, Table 4).