Dolphins are widespread in warm oceanic and coastal waters. They habitually frequent islands. In California, Chile, and other localities, prehistoric peoples targeted dolphins. Some communities specialised in their capture. Elsewhere, prehistoric human use of cetaceans is attributed to opportunistic exploitation of active or stranded animals. In Meso-and Central America, the scarcity of cetaceans in archaeological sites is inferred to reflect the difficulties of their capture at sea with available technology. An unrecorded regional pattern is evident on Pedro González Island in the Pearl Islands (Panama). Remains of bottlenose and common dolphins were found in a Preceramic midden ("Playa Don Bernardo" [PDB]) located in a reef-and mangrove-fringed bay. Eight 14 C-dates bracket the deposit between 6200 and 5600 calibrated years BP. The Preceramic strata, which are between 0.8 m and nearly 4 m deep, are capped by a pottery-bearing soil deposited after a 3000-yr. hiatus in occupation. Delphinid bones and teeth represent 8% of 3660 mammal specimens identified to Family in three small test cuts. These cuts represent only 0.7% of the estimated midden area. A minimum of fourteen dolphin individuals is inferred: 11 belong to common dolphin (Delphinus), two to bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops), and one, possibly, to harbour dolphin (cf Stenella). Several bones show evidence for cuts, scrapes and thermal alteration. Some modifications are anthropogenic. Dry season upwelling induces shoaling fish to enter bays in the Pearl Islands attracting their nektonic, avian and dolphin predators. Ecologically, Don Bernardo Bay suits the short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) and the common bottlenose nose dolphin (Tursiops tuncatus) -the most likely species to be present on the basis of osteology and zoogeography. The opportunistic use of naturally beached dolphins is one hypothesis for their procurement at PDB. Another is intentional human interference: corralling and driving dolphins with watercraft when they entered Don Bernardo Bay to feed or under threat from shark attacks. Ethnographic evidence around the world is supportive. PDB's total subsistence strategy was multi-faceted, comprising exploiting dolphins and marine turtles, farming, marine shore collecting, marine coastal fishing, and hunting in island forests and secondary vegetation. The population included experienced seafarers. Among the exploited mammals, dolphins provided easily the largest quantities of edible tissues, fats and oils.Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
The Mexican hogfish (Osteichthyes: Labridae, Bodianus diplotaenia Gill, 1862) is widely distributed throughout the tropical eastern Pacific from the Gulf of California to northern Peru, including all oceanic islands. Artisanal fishers occasionally capture it today and its remains are recovered at pre-Columbian dwelling sites along the Pacific Coast of America. This paper addresses the advantages of using allometry to estimate size ranges of Mexican hogfish in pre-Hispanic archeological samples from two ancient settlements in the Pearl Island archipelago of Panama: (1) Playa Don Bernardo (PdB), a preceramic site (6.2-5.6 kya), and (2) Bayoneta Island (BY-10), a ceramic site ($1 kya). For creating the allometric model, a modern collection composed of 39 individuals covering a wide range of sizes and weights was used. All individuals have complete information about their total length (TL) and standard length (SL), which were recorded in millimeters (mm), and their total fresh weight (W) in grams (g). The TL of the sample ranged between 265 and 750 mm, and the SL between 210 and 487 mm. The W ranged between 273 and 3450 g. The most frequent bones (11) and otoliths were selected and 29 measurements were taken. The total length-weight relationship was W = 2EÀ05 TL 3.0857 with R 2 = 0.984. In general, it was observed that the relationships between the TL and the bone measurements had a strong correlation (R 2 > 0.95). At PdB, the mean reconstructed length was 289.6 mm (TL), and at BY-10, it was 283.6 mm (TL). The study of the archeological samples of B. diplotaenia could be used as a point of reference in modern ecological studies and fisheries management particularly in the Pearl Island archipelago.
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