Mystery of Landlocked Sockeye in the Fossil Record (British Columbia)

Scientific Blogging ^ | July 14th 2009 | Heidi Henderson

[decimon]

The mystery of the landlocked salmon in the fossil record from the Interior of British Columbia has been a topic of hot debate for a number of years. Salmon have permeated First Nations mythology and have been prized as an important food source for thousands of years. In the Interior of British Columbia, archaeological evidence dates the use of salmon as a food source back 3,500 years. Sheri Burton and Catherine Carlson were able to isolate and amplify mitochondrial DNA from salmon remains from archaeological sites near Kamloops, and identified the species as Oncorhynchus nerka, or Sockeye salmon.

No older salmon remains had been found in the Kamloops area until the 1970’s, when fossil salmon concretions were collected on the south shore of Kamloops Lake. These concretions were originally dated as Miocene (24 – 5.5 million years old) by the Geological Survey of Canada, based on analysis of pollen grains found in the concretions. However, many local experts, including UBC geology professor W.R. Danner and the late geologists W.H. Mathews and Richard Hughes, suspected the remains were from the much more recent, Late Pleistocene epoch.

But it was not until the early 1990s that Catherine Carlson and Ken Klein found definitive proof of this. By good luck, the fish remains in the Kamloops Lake concretions had not been completely replaced by minerals – enough of the original organic bone collagen remained for radiocarbon dating. The corrected date is approximately 18,000 years.

[decimon]

Ice fishing ping.

[cripplecreek]

Guess I’m not understanding the importance of this. Are they unsure of how the sockeye got there or what?

We catch salmon here in Michigan that aren’t traditionally landlocked species.

[coconutt2000]

archaeological evidence dates the use of salmon as a food source back 3,500 years

I bet salmon tasted good before that too.

[Campion]

The salmon in Michigan were stocked there by people in recent times. The landlocked sockeyes (called kokanee) in the Pacific NW weren’t.

[decimon]

Guess I’m not understanding the importance of this.

That in the last ice age, the glaciers receded sooner than has been thought in some areas. That people habituated those areas sooner than has been thought. Or so it seems from this finding.

The author concentrated on the salmon but the other stuff caught my eye. And the picture. I like the picture.

[count-your-change]

Pollen grains, 24-5.5 million years, carbon dating, 18,000 years? Well, that inspires confidence in the dating methods of the learned men.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks decimon.

· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic ·

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks decimon. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[null and void]

A salmon of doubt?

[djf]

Simple.

They were inhabiting the rivers and lakes before the peak of the last ice age.

[wolfcreek]

Begs to question whether salmon were originally fresh water creatures or have always been salt to fresh migrational.

[decimon]

Begs to question whether salmon were originally fresh water creatures or have always been salt to fresh migrational.

Good question. Life is in the sea. Birth and death in the stream.

[mad_as_he$$]

I thought the salmon in the lakes were planted to eat eels. Tahoe has salmon - it is landlocked also. They were planted.