Green or white? Morphology, ancient DNA, and the identification of archaeological North American Pacific Coast sturgeon

Abstract Sturgeon (Acipenser spp.) have long been an important resource for people living in several parts of the world, including the Northwest Coast of North America. Two sturgeon species occur on the Oregon Coast, white (A. transmontanus) and green (A. medirostris), but morphological similarities between the species have generally prevented osteological identification beyond genus. This lack of species identification hinders evaluation of potential changes in sturgeon range or distribution through time, human food preference or encounter rates, and possible size changes in archaeological sturgeon. We analyzed 1770 sturgeon remains from the Par-Tee site (35CLT20) on the northern Oregon Coast and performed ancient DNA species identification on 30 elements to test morphological distinguishability between species. Ancient DNA analysis indicated that both green and white sturgeon were harvested at the site, but identification to species based on morphology is problematic. Sturgeon were an important fish at several sites in the Northwest Coast and at Par-Tee were a component of a broad-based fishery focused on a range of large and small species. Our study emphasizes the importance of ancient DNA analysis of zooarchaeological assemblages to help address important questions about species composition and abundance.