Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Archaeobiogeography Of Extinct Rice Rats (Oryzomyini) In The Lesser Antilles During The Ceramic Age (500 Bce–1500 Ce), Marine Durocher, Violaine Nicolas, Sophia Perdikaris, Dominique Bonnissent, Gwenola Robert, Karyne Debue, Allowen Evin, Sandrine Grouard

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

During the Ceramic Age (500 BCE–1500 CE), Lesser Antilles rice rats (tribe Oryzomyini) made up a significant portion of the diet of Caribbean islanders. Archaeological excavations across the archipelago resulted to the discovery of large quantities of remains from to these now extinct taxa. It offers a unique opportunity to investigate the past biogeography of this taxon of high cultural and ecological importance. We have studied 1,140 first lower molars originating from 40 archaeological sites across eleven islands of the Lesser Antilles archipelago using two-dimensional geometric morphometric approaches to establish spatiotemporal pat-terns relying on phenotypic variations. This study identified three …