INVESTIGADORES
GRANDI Maria Florencia
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Diagnostic morphological traits in post-cranial skeleton for the identification of otariids in the zooarchaeological record
Autor/es:
BORELLA, F.; VALES, D.; GRANDI, M.F.; GARCÍA, N.A.; CRESPO, E.A.
Lugar:
San Rafael
Reunión:
Congreso; 12th International Conference of Archaeozoology; 2014
Resumen:
Eared seals, Arctocephalus australis (Aa) and Otaria
flavescens (Of), are frequently represented in many assemblages from
Patagonia and others areas in southern South American coastal archaeological
sites. However, the similarity between the postcranial elements of these
species has limited the taxonomic identification to the level of Otariidae and
thus, has precluded obtain an accurate representation of these animals in the
zooarchaeological record. The aim of this study is to submit clear criteria
that can be used in the identification of Aa and Of in otariid
zooarchaeological remains as part of the existing approaches (comparative collections
and osteometric studies) to investigate particular aspects involving the fossil
record of these animals. For this, morphological characteristics were explored
in several bones of the skeleton of 25 adult individuals, namely: 3 females and
9 males of Aa, and 10 females and 3 males of Of. Taking into account that the
use of a set of traits for each bone is a better indicator for species
identification, the results indicate that scapula, humerus, ulna, femur,
tibia-fibula, talus and calcaneum are the elements with the highest number of
traits to distinguish between the species involved. On the other hand, radius,
scapholunate, sacrum and the innominate bone have less number of discriminant
traits, while vertebrae (axis and atlas) and ribs seem to be useless to
distinguish between species.