Biodiversity of Holocene marine fish of the southeast coast of Brazil

Abstract

Middens are archaeological sites dating between 8,000 and 1,000 years before present and are commonly found on the Brazilian coast. Data were collected from 68 middens allowing an inventory of 142 fish species, most of them recorded in no more than five sites. Conversely, Micropogonias furnieri and Pogonias cromis had the highest frequencies of occurrence. The biogeographic, ecological and economic data showed that most of the identified fish are widely distributed in the Western Atlantic (59.72%) and inhabit estuarine environments (53.99%), while most species have a demersal habit (35.92%) and exhibit oceanic migratory behaviour (28.87%). Lastly, the surveyed fish are predominantly carnivorous (72.54%) with some commercial value (96.48%). Chi-squared tests comparing midden inventory and current ichthyofauna checklists failed to show significant differences between them (p > 0.99). Thus, the results indicate that zoo-archaeological fish remains are key evidence of Holocene biodiversity and may help the establishment of more complete baselines. Biodiversidade de peixes marinhos do Holoceno da costa Sudeste brasileiraResumo: Sambaquis são sítios arqueológicos, datando entre 8,000 e 1,000 anos antes do presente, encontrados na costa brasileira. Neste trabalho, dados ictiológicos referentes a 68 sambaquis da costa Sudeste do Brasil foram compilados e construído um inventário de referência no qual constam 142 espécies, a maioria das quais com registro em não mais que cinco sítios. Por outro lado, as espécies Micropogonias furnieri e Pogonias cromis apresentaram alta frequência de ocorrência nos sambaquis. Os dados biogeográficos, ecológicos e econômicos mostraram que a maioria das espécies registradas nos sambaquis são de ampla distribuição no Atlântico Ocidental (59.72%), habitam ambientes estuarinos (53.99%), tem um hábito demersal (35.92%) e comportamento oceânico migratório (28.87%). A maioria dos registros diz respeito a peixes carnívoros (72.54%) e com algum valor comercial (96.48%). A comparação da lista de ictiofauna registrada para os sambaquis com uma lista construída com base em inventários atuais de peixes para mesma região não mostrou diferenças significativas (teste de qui-quadrado, p> 0.99). Dessa forma, os resultados apresentados indicam que os vestígios de ictiofauna encontrados em sambaquis constituem uma amostra relevante da biodiversidade do Holoceno podendo ser muito úteis na construção de inventários de referências mais completos da fauna ictiológica da costa brasileira.

Los Sambaquis como registros de diversidad de moluscos holocénicos en la costa de Río de Janeiro, Brasil

“…Furthermore, Souza et al (2010a) showed that single malacological inventories for large areas such as São Paulo Coast (Arruda et al, 2003) and Southeast Brazilian Coast (Denadai et al, 2001) were able to sample as little as 6.5% and 3.4% respectively of the total number of species for these areas. Comparing with other taxa found in sambaquis, Mendes et al (2018) showed that only 17.6% of all fish species found in the coast of Rio de Janeiro were found in an inventory of all sambaquis for the same region. Therefore, 30% is by no means a negligible number of species on such circumstances.…”

“…Therefore, shell mounds are also repository of information on living fauna existing during the late Holocene. Based on that, some recent studies have been using shell mounds to describe the fauna composition of the Holocene, especially mollusks and fishes (Souza et al, 2010a(Souza et al, , 2012(Souza et al, , 2016Mendes et al, 2014Mendes et al, , 2018Beauclair et al, 2016).…”

South Brazil pre‐colonial sharks: Insights into biodiversity and species distributions

“…Zooarchaeological remains have been used to assess the past biodiversity, to understand the ecological changes in a given ecosystem, and have shown that marine fauna species may have been much more abundant and diverse than is currently perceived (Jackson et al ., 2001; Pinnegar & Engelhard, 2008). The use of zooarchaeological remains has increased in recent years as a source of information about historical biodiversity ( e.g ., Lopes et al ., 2016; Mendes et al ., 2018). Despite the limitations of zooarchaeological data ( e.g ., human bias as selective fisheries), studies show it can be used to assess marine Holocene biodiversity, as these are not statistically different from current biodiversity inventories (Mendes et al ., 2020).…”

“…Shark remains such as teeth and vertebrae are ubiquitous in archaeological sites on the south and south‐east Brazilian coast. More recent studies identifying the biodiversity of marine fauna present in archaeological sites have been carried out in Brazil's south‐eastern region ( e.g ., Lopes et al ., 2016; Mendes et al ., 2018). These studies show incredible biodiversity of fish assemblages, evidencing well‐developed fisheries and the historical potential for the exploitation and overexploitation of fish populations and possible nurseries areas.…”

Range distribution and contributions to taxonomy of Elops smithi (ELOPIFORMES: ELOPIDAE)

“…In most surveys of fish populations on the Brazilian coast, however, E. saurus has been identified as the most common elopid species (Franco et al 2014, garcia-Junior et al 2015, Pinheiro et al 2015, Marceniuk et al 2017, Medeiros et al 2018, Mendes et al 2018.…”