Fossorial rodents and applied zooarchaeology to ecosystem conservation in Sierras of Córdoba, Argentina

Abstract

This paper presents the zooarchaeological research carried out on Ctenomys (Rodentia: Ctenomyidae) bone remains recovered at Quebrada del Real 1 (ca. 7400–360 years BP), an archaeological site located in the Sierras of Córdoba upper mountain grassland range of Argentina. Here, we focus on the importance of Ctenomys implications to wild-life management and conservation biology rather than its classical archaeological view as a subsistence resource. The primary aim was to provide critical information about the recent past biogeography of Ctenomys that may not be evident from modern fauna surveys. From the description of a highly specialised fossorial rodent extinct at the end of the Holocene, the study points out the extreme fragility of the Sierras of Córdoba high mountain environments under climate change and anthropogenic threat, drawing on data that are relevant to those who make decisions and write guidelines for wild-life management. The analysis of the Ctenomys assemblage from Quebrada del Real 1 revealed information related to the management, conservation and restoration of the mountain top environments that cannot be ignored by conservation biologists and wild-life managers, moreover when the causes that lead to the extinction of C. viarapaensis are the same ones affecting to modern plant and animal communities. The zooarchaeological record reflects past conditions to assess preindustrial ecological states of the upper mountain grassland range that otherwise would have never been known as a baseline for environmental management. Thus, applied zooarchaeology to conservation biology requires further exploration at Sierras of Córdoba in order to produce accurate knowledge about the high-altitude ecosystems function, fragility and biodiversity loss, which is necessary to understand the present and improve the future of three million people who depend on the ecological services from these environments.