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Diet and craniofacial morphological variation in human populations of the san matías gulf (Patagonia, Argentina)

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to study the craniofacial morphological variation of human populations that inhabited the San Matías gulf coast (Río Negro, Patagonia, Argentina) and neighboring areas during the late Holocene (3000-400 years BP), and its relationship to changes in the diet. The archaeological record of this region is characterized by detailed information of the ecological contexts that allows to differentiate changes in the diet from isotopic and archaeological data. The chronology for this area has been well established by radiocarbon dating. In particular, by using geometric morphometrics techniques in 2D, we explore a hypothesis that postulates the existence of a relationship between the variation in craniofacial morphological and dietary changes that occurred around ca. 1.600 years AP in the area. Here, we analyzed the pattern of morphological change in the facial module and cranial base in populations from the San Matías gulf, the northern coast of Negro river, the lower Chubut river valley, and San Blas and Isla Gama, for which the presence of varying degrees of differences in diet between the periods studied has been indicated. Our results show that the pattern of craniofacial morphological variation observed in northeastern Patagonia, in general, and in the area of San Matías gulf, in particular, is complex and characterized by a different behavior of the two anatomical regions studied (the facial skeleton and cranial base) relative to ecological variation.