New Equations for the Size Reconstruction of Sturgeon from Isolated Cranial and Pectoral Girdle Bones

Thieren, Els; Neer, Wim Van

doi:10.1002/oa.2407

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In Fish Remains in Archaeology and Paleo-Environmental Studies, Casteel (1976) demonstrated the significance of archaeological fish bone analysis, addressing seasonality, morphometric studies, subsistence reconstructions, and fish mortality profiles (i.e., age of fish when captured). Casteel influenced the development of archaeological fish bone analysis worldwide (e.g., Thieren and Van Neer 2014;Zohar et al 2008), but these analyses occurred earlier in America and Europe than in the Pacific Islands. Gifford (1951) reported the first study of prehistoric diet using fish bone from Fiji archaeological sites, with taxonomic identifications by the ichthyologist Fowler (1955).…”

Section: New Directions In Pacific Archaeology: Fish Bone Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pacific Islands Ichthyoarchaeology: Implications for the Development of Prehistoric Fishing Studies and Global Sustainability

Lambrides

Weisler

2016

J Archaeol Res

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The Pacific Islands-consisting of culturally diverse Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia-is the ideal region to investigate the development of prehistoric fishing studies, as nowhere else on Earth is there such environmental contrasts among island types and their marine environments. We review the ichthyoarchaeological literature for the Pacific and assess developments in recovery methods, reference collections, taxonomic identifications, quantification, taphonomy and site-formation processes, ethnoarchaeology, approaches to diet and subsistence reconstructions, sustainability, and the importance of applied zooarchaeology for fisheries management and conservation. Ichthyoarchaeologists are beginning to work more closely with resource managers, fisheries biologists, policy makers, and indigenous communities to produce holistic studies of conservation management, resource sustainability, and assessments of human impacts on marine ecosystems over centuries to millennial time scales.

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Section: New Directions In Pacific Archaeology: Fish Bone Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fishing studies outside the Pacific Islands still identify a greater range of the so-called cranial elements-e.g., elements of the neurocranium, hyopalatine arch, opercular series, infraorbital series (Amundsen et al 2005;Desse-Berset and Desse 1994;Thieren and Van Neer 2014).…”

Section: Element Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pacific Islands Ichthyoarchaeology: Implications for the Development of Prehistoric Fishing Studies and Global Sustainability

Lambrides

Weisler

2016

J Archaeol Res

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“…In a second step, the total lengths ( L T ) of the fish were reconstructed, as this proved to be an influential factor for the surface pattern of the dermal bones. While the dermal bones of the head and pectoral girdle provide the most accurate fish‐length reconstruction, using the Thieren & Van Neer () regression equations, the scutes, although numerically dominant in archaeological samples, have the disadvantage of being less precise for fish‐length reconstructions. Despite the wide variation in shape and size among scutes within one row, it remains difficult to establish the exact rank of scutes within a row in the case of isolated finds from archaeological sites.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Holocene occurrence of Acipenser spp. in the southern North Sea: the archaeological record

Thieren

Ervynck²,

Brinkhuizen

et al. 2016

Journal of Fish Biology

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Archaeological sturgeon remains from the southern North Sea basin used to be automatically attributed to Acipenser sturio, since this was the only acipenserid species believed to occur there. These species identifications, however, were in need of revision after a growing number of indications were found for the historical presence of Acipenser oxyrinchus in western Europe. In this study, morphological and genetic data on sturgeon remains from archaeological sites along the southern North Sea are revised. A large number of Dutch, Belgian, British and some French archaeological sturgeon remains, dating from the Mesolithic up to Late Modern times, are morphologically examined and fish sizes are reconstructed. This study of >7000 acipenserid bones proves the sympatric occurrence of European sturgeon A. sturio and Atlantic sturgeon A. oxyrinchus in the southern North Sea at least since the Neolithic (fourth millennium BC onwards), with A. oxyrinchus remains always outnumbering those of A. sturio. Human influence is documented by the decrease in finds through time, but no clear evidence was found for a diachronic change in fish lengths that could possibly be related to fishing pressure.

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“…For 30 of the 34 genetically identified specimens, we were able to establish whether the fish was smaller or larger than 1 m TL ( Table 5). The back-calculated lengths, based on models in Thieren and Van Neer (2016), of 18 bones of the head or the pectoral girdle, ranged between approx. 1 and 2 m. In the case of 12 isolated scutes, a rather crude size Table 3 Taxonomic identification of Acipenser sturio (stur) and A. oxyrinchus (oxy) museum specimens from Chassaing et al (2013) and this study.…”

Section: Archaeological Samplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter- and intraspecific variation in the surface pattern of the dermal bones of two sturgeon species

et al. 2016

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Summary Archaeological bone remains of sturgeon (Acipenser sturio/Acipenser oxyrinchus) from northwestern Europe are often identified to species on the basis of their surface morphology and then used to reconstruct the spatial distribution of the two species through time. The dermal bones of A. sturio are said to have an exterior surface pattern consisting of tubercles, while those of A. oxyrinchus are said to display alveoli. In the present paper, the validity of the surface pattern as a species‐specific characteristic is critically assessed. To this purpose, dermal plates from modern, genetically identified museum specimens were studied and the surface morphology observed in a series of archaeological remains was compared with the genetic identifications obtained on these same remains. The analyses show that the surface pattern of dermal bones is related to the size of the individual, with the pattern of small A. oxyrinchus being similar to that of A. sturio. In addition, variations in the surface pattern among the bones of a single individual and within the same bone have been observed. These findings explain previous conflicting results between morphological and genetic identifications and allow the formulation of some recommendations for more accurate morphological identification of isolated archaeological sturgeon dermal bones.

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New Equations for the Size Reconstruction of Sturgeon from Isolated Cranial and Pectoral Girdle Bones

Cited by 14 publications

References 24 publications

Pacific Islands Ichthyoarchaeology: Implications for the Development of Prehistoric Fishing Studies and Global Sustainability

Pacific Islands Ichthyoarchaeology: Implications for the Development of Prehistoric Fishing Studies and Global Sustainability

The Holocene occurrence of Acipenser spp. in the southern North Sea: the archaeological record

Inter- and intraspecific variation in the surface pattern of the dermal bones of two sturgeon species

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