Capillaria spp. eggs in Patagonian archaeological sites: statistical analysis of morphometric data

• Main Authors: Martín H Fugassa, Verónica Taglioretti, Marcelo LC Gonçalves, Adauto Araújo, Norma H Sardella, Guillermo M Denegri
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde 2008-02-01
• Series: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz.
• Subjects: paleoparasitology; coprolites; Capillaria; discriminant analysis
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762008000100016
• ISSN: 0074-0276; 1678-8060

Discriminant analysis was used to identify eggs of Capillaria spp. at specific level found in organic remains from an archaeological site in Patagonia, Argentina, dated of 6,540 ± 110 years before present. In order to distinguish eggshell morphology 149 eggs were measured and grouped into four arbitrary subsets. The analysis used on egg width and length discriminated them into different morphotypes (Wilks' lambda = 0.381, p < 0.05). The correlation analysis suggests that width was the most important variable to discriminate among the Capillaria spp. egg morphotypes (Pearson coefficient = 0.950, p < 0.05). The study of eggshell patterns, the relative frequency in the sample, and the morphometric data allowed us to correlate the four morphotypes with Capillaria species.