Age estimation of juvenile guanaco (Lama guanicoe) individuals using diaphyseal long bone length

L'HEREUX, L.; KAUFMANN C. A.

BAR International Series 2354- British Archaeological Reports

John and Erica Hedges Ltd.

Año: 2011;

Lama guanicoe (guanaco) is the best represented land mammal in continental archaeological hunter-gatherer sites during the Holocene in Patagonia and the Pampas of South America. The main objective of this paper is to develop a model to estimate the age of immature guanacos by the length of their long bones, which will help discriminate age in young bone specimens of this species. The individuals studied belong to a comparative collection of modern guanaco specimens from the Cinco Chañares locality, Rio Negro province, Northern Patagonia, Argentina. The correlation analyses show that the association between greatest length (GL) and age was very high for all unfused long bones, with highly significant probability levels (P > 0.01). This allowed us to develop four predictive models to estimate the age-at-death for juvenile guanacos using a simple regression analysis. The use of new methodological tools that improve knowledge of age structure in fossil assemblages of Lama guanicoe significantly contribute to the discussion and interpretation of prey selection strategies and seasonality of guanaco exploitation by Patagonian and Pampean hunter-gatherer groups during the Holocene .