étude ostéo-morphométrique des tortues marines de ... - Seaturtle.org

Geometric morphometrics of the coracoid and scapula in living sea turtles (Cheloniidae
Oppel, 1811): an archaeological perspective.
INTRODUCTION
Because of the current rapid decline of sea turtles, due to human exploitations and fisheries,
the investigations concerning these reptiles are focused on the urgency to know their biology.
Here we present a geometric morphometric study bringing to light the interest of shape
variations to identify precisely sea turtles from bones.
Sea turtles’ archaeological remains are frequently excavated from different regions of the
whole world where the turtles interacted with human societies (Kirch and Yen, 1982; Kirch,
1988; Frazier, 2003; Woodrom-Luna, 2003; Allen, 2006).
Published accounts include detailed illustrations, measurements, stratigraphic interpretations,
but identification is in most cases only made at the general level “turtle”. However, sex, size,
weight and age are very important pieces of information for archaeological studies. Sea
turtle’s remains from archaeological sites are very useful to characterize ancient human
activities. Due to their particular ethology and ecology, these leavings become more than just
remains. For example, only females reach beaches: so, knowing the sex of sea turtle’s bones
on an archaeological site initiates inquiries about the ancient human fisheries activities, and in
addition provides information on human migrations.
This means that the interpretation of sea turtle’s bones cannot be carried out without being
associated with typical faunal assemblages (waste deposit areas) or human’s artefacts (burns
and cut marks, scars or damages left by capture techniques, worked bones). This ensures that
sea turtles did not die during nesting, a very common phenomenon according to Frazier
(2003) and Allen (2006), who defined the kinds of faunal assemblages or human’s artefacts
that must be found associated with sea turtle remains before initiating archaeological
interpretations.
To draw up an evaluation of all the archaeological sites where sea turtle’s bones were
excavated is not the aim of this paper. Frazier (2003, 2005) and Allen (2006) reviewed this
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