Abstract

Haruda, A., Mazzucato, C., Yeomans, L.

Accurate identification of waterfowl in archaeological assemblages of the Levant has the potential to unlock new methods of past environmental reconstruction. Species have differing habitat preferences and migration patterns, and therefore identifying the palaeoecological presence of avian resources is key to addressing how prehistoric people responded to climatic and environmental realignments across the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. However, the identification of osteological remains of ducks from archaeological and palaeontological contexts is notoriously challenging. We address this by presenting new geometric morphometric methods (GMM) protocols on wing elements from over twenty Palaearctic species to improve identification of waterfowl. This is an ideal starting point to expand the utilisation of GMM in avifaunal research and test applicability to a notoriously difficult taxonomic group.

This event is in person, but will be streamed at: https://zoom.us/j/95506595957?pwd=S0tzL2ZJcUp5eDRxNmpxYWpaL0VZUT09