Fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus ) bones from a 5850 year old shell midden on San Miguel Island, California, USA
Large cetaceans were heavily impacted by commercial whaling, so relatively little is known about their biogeography prior to historic times. On California’s Channel Islands, maritime peoples hunted dolphins and porpoises for millennia, but ethnohistoric data suggest that larger cetaceans were not...
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ftunivnebraskali:oai:digitalcommons.unl.edu:usdeptcommercepub-1620 2024-06-23T07:51:33+00:00 Fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus ) bones from a 5850 year old shell midden on San Miguel Island, California, USA Erlandson, Jon M. DeLong, Robert L. Robertson, Kelly M. 2020-02-10T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usdeptcommercepub/631 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usdeptcommercepub/article/1620/viewcontent/Erlandson_JICA_2022_Fin_whale.pdf unknown DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usdeptcommercepub/631 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usdeptcommercepub/article/1620/viewcontent/Erlandson_JICA_2022_Fin_whale.pdf United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications Cetaceans aDNA historical ecology whale bone artifacts California Channel Islands text 2020 ftunivnebraskali 2024-06-05T03:31:38Z Large cetaceans were heavily impacted by commercial whaling, so relatively little is known about their biogeography prior to historic times. On California’s Channel Islands, maritime peoples hunted dolphins and porpoises for millennia, but ethnohistoric data suggest that larger cetaceans were not hunted. The Island Chumash scavenged beached whale carcasses for food and technological purposes, however, and the bones of large whales are relatively common in many Channel Island shell middens. Cetacean bones from such sites provide unique opportunities to document the ancient distribution and human use of larger whale species, but many bone fragments are not identifiable to the genus or species level based solely on osteological characteristics. Here, we report genomic data for two whale bones recovered from a 5850 year old shell midden on San Miguel Island. Both were identified as fin whale, the second largest of the great whales. Our analysis provides points in space and time for the distribution of fin whales in the past, but a wider identification of whale bones from coastal archaeological sites can potentially expand such data for numerous whale species, adding significantly to an understanding of their distributions, ecology, and utility for humans in the past. Text Balaenoptera physalus Fin whale University of Nebraska-Lincoln: DigitalCommons@UNL San Miguel ENVELOPE(-57.467,-57.467,-63.650,-63.650) |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of Nebraska-Lincoln: DigitalCommons@UNL |
op_collection_id |
ftunivnebraskali |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Cetaceans aDNA historical ecology whale bone artifacts California Channel Islands |
spellingShingle |
Cetaceans aDNA historical ecology whale bone artifacts California Channel Islands Erlandson, Jon M. DeLong, Robert L. Robertson, Kelly M. Fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus ) bones from a 5850 year old shell midden on San Miguel Island, California, USA |
topic_facet |
Cetaceans aDNA historical ecology whale bone artifacts California Channel Islands |
description |
Large cetaceans were heavily impacted by commercial whaling, so relatively little is known about their biogeography prior to historic times. On California’s Channel Islands, maritime peoples hunted dolphins and porpoises for millennia, but ethnohistoric data suggest that larger cetaceans were not hunted. The Island Chumash scavenged beached whale carcasses for food and technological purposes, however, and the bones of large whales are relatively common in many Channel Island shell middens. Cetacean bones from such sites provide unique opportunities to document the ancient distribution and human use of larger whale species, but many bone fragments are not identifiable to the genus or species level based solely on osteological characteristics. Here, we report genomic data for two whale bones recovered from a 5850 year old shell midden on San Miguel Island. Both were identified as fin whale, the second largest of the great whales. Our analysis provides points in space and time for the distribution of fin whales in the past, but a wider identification of whale bones from coastal archaeological sites can potentially expand such data for numerous whale species, adding significantly to an understanding of their distributions, ecology, and utility for humans in the past. |
format |
Text |
author |
Erlandson, Jon M. DeLong, Robert L. Robertson, Kelly M. |
author_facet |
Erlandson, Jon M. DeLong, Robert L. Robertson, Kelly M. |
author_sort |
Erlandson, Jon M. |
title |
Fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus ) bones from a 5850 year old shell midden on San Miguel Island, California, USA |
title_short |
Fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus ) bones from a 5850 year old shell midden on San Miguel Island, California, USA |
title_full |
Fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus ) bones from a 5850 year old shell midden on San Miguel Island, California, USA |
title_fullStr |
Fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus ) bones from a 5850 year old shell midden on San Miguel Island, California, USA |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus ) bones from a 5850 year old shell midden on San Miguel Island, California, USA |
title_sort |
fin whale ( balaenoptera physalus ) bones from a 5850 year old shell midden on san miguel island, california, usa |
publisher |
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usdeptcommercepub/631 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usdeptcommercepub/article/1620/viewcontent/Erlandson_JICA_2022_Fin_whale.pdf |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-57.467,-57.467,-63.650,-63.650) |
geographic |
San Miguel |
geographic_facet |
San Miguel |
genre |
Balaenoptera physalus Fin whale |
genre_facet |
Balaenoptera physalus Fin whale |
op_source |
United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usdeptcommercepub/631 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usdeptcommercepub/article/1620/viewcontent/Erlandson_JICA_2022_Fin_whale.pdf |
_version_ |
1802642666413883392 |