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

information (table 1) in many papers dealing with it in different places: Mexico, Arabian
Peninsula, Africa (Frazier, 2005), Melanesia and Polynesia (Kirch and Yen, 1982; Kirch,
1988; Frazier, 2003; Woodrom-Luna, 2003; Allen, 2006; Galipaud, 2006).
Table 1. Number of archaeological sites compared to kinds of human use: aha,
bones associated with human activity; wb, worked bones (cut marks, burns,
hole, etc.), ahb, bones associated with human burials.
aha wb ahb
Caribbean, Yucatan, Florida ? 26 9
Polynesia 13 ? ?
Arabian Peninsula 6 4 1
Over the last century, several studies have been devoted to sea turtle’s biometry (Duron-
Dufrenne and Bour, 1988; Zangerl, 1988; Hirayama, 1992; Kamezaki, 1995, 2003; Pritchard,
1997). Nowadays, as the field of statistics has developed, geometric morphometric methods
can complement the traditional ones: they allow studying the geometry of real three
dimensional shapes and not only ratios or angles, which often generate complex working
hypothesis and problems for visualization.
Here we present one such method, 2D landmarks, based on Procuste superimposition. It
allows to separate size and shapes, allometry being a result of their combination. Landmarks
method allows to statistically compare shape variations once the non-shape variations (size
and residual) has been removed by superimposition (Adams et al., 2004).
The aim is to underline and summarize the real shape and size variations to get an objective
knowledge of bones morphological features and identify the characteristics that can offer
functional and identification interest. During the growth, bones are changing with a shape
component (in different directions) and a size component (respecting the initial shape).
Allometries are the shape variation during the growth correlated to size.
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