Evaluation of size-related salmonid fish vertebrae deformation due to compression: an experimental approach

An experimental program of uniaxial compression forces on fresh and dry salmonid vertebrae of different sizes is presented to show what diagnostic features compression generates on these bones. The study found that diagnostic features exist, but their frequency often depends on size and the amount of fat that vertebrae contain when subjected to uniaxial compression. These signatures provide reference tools to assess formation processes of fish bone assemblages, whether archaeological or paleontological. The experimental data were later applied to a case study of a salmonid assemblage from the Late Upper Paleolithic to Mesolithic site of Santa Catalina (Basque country, Spain), to assess the validity of a hypothesis postulating that prehistoric salmonid populations from the Cantabrian region were subjected to overexploitation and that this phenomenon brought about a decrease in the mean size of specimens before the onset of the Neolithic in the region.