title: The Holocene occurrence of Acipenser spp. in the southern North Sea: the archaeological record.
abstract: Archaeological sturgeon remains from the southern North Sea basin used to be automatically attributed to Acipenser sturio, since this was the only acipenserid species believed to occur there. These species identifications, however, were in need of revision after a growing number of indications were found for the historical presence of Acipenser oxyrinchus in western Europe. In this study, morphological and genetic data on sturgeon remains from archaeological sites along the southern North Sea are revised. A large number of Dutch, Belgian, British and some French archaeological sturgeon remains, dating from the Mesolithic up to Late Modern times, are morphologically examined and fish sizes are reconstructed. This study of >7000 acipenserid bones proves the sympatric occurrence of European sturgeon A. sturio and Atlantic sturgeon A. oxyrinchus in the southern North Sea at least since the Neolithic (fourth millennium BC onwards), with A. oxyrinchus remains always outnumbering those of A. sturio. Human influence is documented by the decrease in finds through time, but no clear evidence was found for a diachronic change in fish lengths that could possibly be related to fishing pressure.
authors: Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, B-1000, Brussels, Belgium.|Laboratory of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Genomics, KU Leuven, Ch. Debériotstraat 32, B-3000, Leuven, Belgium.
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Thieren
authors: Flanders Heritage, Koning Albert II-laan 19 box 5, B-1210, Brussels, Belgium.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Ervynck
authors: Koninginnelaan 18A, 9717 BT, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Brinkhuizen
authors: Edifici L'Ingla, Atic 1ª, 58 Avenguda del Pessebre, Escaldes-Engordany, AD700, Andorra.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Locker
authors: Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, B-1000, Brussels, Belgium. wvanneer@naturalsciences.be.
authors: W
authors: W
authors: Van Neer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005060:Europe; D005399:Fishes / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D005580:Fossils; D009659:North Sea
keywords: Acipenser oxyrinchus; Acipenser sturio; archaeozoology; zoogeography