Bringing Two Halves Together: Combining Modern Phylogenetics and Zooarchaeological Analysis to Understand Past and Present Trends of Freshwater Mussels (Unionidae) in Mesoamerica

Summary

For over a century, the taxonomy of the Central American freshwater mussels (family Unionidae) has been the subject of numerous classifications and reclassifications, with naturalists identifying morphologically identical taxa as different genera or species, while at the same time classifying obviously distinct taxa under the same name. Zooarchaeologists at the mercy of these erratic classification schemes have been unable to effectively compare datasets. This study uses a combined zooarchaeological and molecular phylogenetic approach to identify both the ancient and modern freshwater mussels in Guatemala’s Pasión River. Modern mussels were surveyed and collected near the archaeological site of Ceibal and then tested to understand their molecular phylogeny. Phylogenic results were used to identify the archaeological shells spanning the site’s history (1000 BC to AD 1000). Field data gathered on the live mussel biology, and interviews with the local residents familiar with the mussels, were used to produce a comprehensive understanding of how the different taxa may have been gathered and used by the ancient Maya. Results indicate that some taxa present in the river today were rare or entirely absent in the past, while certain taxa commonly found at Ceibal millennia ago cannot be found today.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20251