| dc.description.abstract | This study uses—and evaluates the efficacy of—two-dimensional geometric
morphometrics (2DGM) to quantitatively characterize the size and shape of murine rodent (i.e.,
rat) mandibular molar rows from the archaeological site of Liang Bua, a limestone cave located
on the Indonesian island of Flores and the type site of Homo floresiensis. Murine remains make
up a significant portion of Liang Bua’s sizable faunal assemblage and contribute significantly to
understanding the paleoecology of western Flores. As such, it is essential to develop robust
methodologies to accurately assess the taxonomy of these remains. Using images of complete
mandibular toothrows, this study aims to test the functionality of 2DGM for taxonomic
assessments based on the size and shape variation present in the Liang Bua murine assemblage.
The results show that 2DGM offers important information about mandibular toothrow size and
shape that can be used in conjunction with qualitative and other quantitative data for murine
species identification at Liang Bua and other archaeological sites on Flores. Additionally, this
study explores the effects of image angle and tooth wear on 2DGM analyses and provides several
recommendations for how to mitigate these potential issues in future work. Since the Liang Bua
murine remains represent multiple species of varying body sizes and habitat preferences,
quantitative variation and descriptions of previously uncharacterized inter- and intra-species
variation described in this study will help to facilitate ongoing paleoecological reconstructions of
the cave’s history. | en_US |
