| Summary: | International audience Reconstructing the interactions between Palaeolithic human groups and their prey is often complicated by a general lack of data on the ethology and ecology of past animal communities. DeerPal is an interdisciplinary project aimed at applying different cuttingedge analytical techniques (dental microwear texture analysis, stable isotopic analysis, cementochronology and geometric morphometrics [GMM]) to progress in this avenue. It focuses on two archaeological periods (the Middle Palaeolithic of southwestern France and the Late Glacial from the Pyrenees to the Paris-Basin) and two animal species that were key to hunter-gatherer groups: reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus). At the end of the Late Glacial, reindeer gradually disappeared from southwestern Europe with the climate warming. As they became more fragmented geographically, different responses should be expected, such as variation in their migratory patterns (e.g. more or less sedentary groups, latitudinal vs. altitudinal migration along the Pyrenees, etc.). As the migration behaviours of reindeer herds during this period are largely unknown, it is difficult to interpret Late Glacial socio-economic organization and mobility strategies. In this contribution, we present the first results acquired by GMM on reindeer phalanges from modern populations. Due to the fact that locomotor morphological adaptations are closely related to habitat preferences and mobility, it is possible to infer behavioural responses using an animal's cranial and post-cranial morphology. GMM allows identifying subtle differences in size and form between individuals of the same species. For our study, a total of 155 first and third phalanges from different ecotypes of extant caribou were scanned with a laser-surface 3D-scanner. Results acquired by the 3D-GMM analysis of this reference sample allows a discussion of our capacity to identify migratory/non-migratory reindeer in past populations. A similar methodology is then applied to ...
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