A post-cranial osteometrical database for the Spanish ibex (Capra pyrenaica Schinz, 1838)

Abstract

Body size analyses in zooarchaeology require reliable osteometrical databases in order to evaluate phenomena such as the existence of diachronic and geographic changes and the estimation of the sex ratio. Despite it being a major hunting item in the Iberian Peninsula since Upper Palaeolithic times, the Spanish ibex presently lacks such a reference database. This paper intends to address such absence by offering a comprehensive overview of selected postcranial measurements of the Spanish ibex that includes data from the two extant sub-species, plus a compilation of measurements from Upper Pleistocene Basque Country sites and those retrieved at Sector C of the NE Iberian site of Cova Fosca.