Geometric morphometric analysis of Pleuronectiformes vertebrae: A new tool to identify archaeological fish remains?

ABSTRACT: Flatfish (Pleuronectiformes) vertebrae are difficult to identify to species due to the lack of diagnostic features. This has resulted in a lack of understanding of the species abundances across archaeological sites, hindering interpretations of historical fisheries in the North Sea area. We use a new approach, utilising a combined 2D landmark-based geometric morphometric analysis as an objective and non-destructive method for species identification of flatfish vertebrae from the North Sea area. Modern specimens were used as a reference to describe the morphological variation between taxa using principal component analysis (PCA) and to trial an automated classification using linear discriminant analysis. Although there is limited distinction between taxa using PCAs, the classification shows

SUBMITTER: Dierickx K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10641040 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature