Archaeological data suggest seventeenth-century presence of Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) in the Middle Rio Grande

Authors

Emily Lena Jones, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NMFollow
Laura W. Steele, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NMFollow
Cyler Conrad, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM; Environmental Protection and Compliance, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NMFollow

Abstract

The Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) is well established in the Middle Rio Grande today, but some researchers have suggested this population to be of anthropogenic origin. In this paper, we present a C. serpentina specimen recovered during archaeological excavations at the Isleta Pueblo Mission in central New Mexico. The turtle specimen derives from an archaeological context securely dated to the early seventeenth century. The presence of C. serpentina in this context, taken together with the composition of the rest of the Isleta Pueblo Mission archaeofaunal assemblage and the present-day C. serpentina population in the Middle Rio Grande, suggests that C. serpentina has been present in this drainage since at least the seventeenth century and is likely native.


La tortuga mordedora común (Chelydra serpentina) está bien establecida en el Río Grande de Nuevo México en la actualidad, pero esta población puede ser el resultado de una introducción antropogénica. En este artículo, presentamos un espécimen de tortuga mordedora recuperado durante excavaciones arqueológicas en la Misión Isleta Pueblo en el centro de Nuevo México. El espécimen viene de un contexto arqueológico datado con seguridad del inicio del siglo XVII. La presencia de C. serpentina en este contexto, junto con la composición del resto de arqueofauna de la Misión Isleta Pueblo y la población establecida de C. serpentina en el Río Grande en la actualidad, sugiere que C. serpentina ha estado presente en el Río Grande de Nuevo México desde al menos el siglo XVII y es nativa de este rio.

Recommended Citation

Jones, Emily Lena; Steele, Laura W.; and Conrad, Cyler (2022) "Archaeological data suggest seventeenth-century presence of Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) in the Middle Rio Grande," Western North American Naturalist: Vol. 82: No. 3, Article 17.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wnan/vol82/iss3/17