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2.5 Names and codes for skeletal parts of fish

A fish typically contains over 300 bones and other skeletal parts, but not all are diagnostic to taxon. Diagnostic elements vary between taxon. Key jaw bones such as dentary, articular, maxilla and premaxilla are highly diagnostic to species for a wide range of fish taxa. Other skeletal parts are variably diagnostic for particular taxa only. This includes other named head and jaw bones, modified scales or scutes and some vertebrae (Leach 1986; Leach and Boocok 1993). Skill, experience and the availability of adequate comparative reference collections also influence 'identifiability'. At this stage the AFBI archive only contains images of key head and jaw bones, a few other highly diagnostic skeletal parts and some vertebrae. Table 3 provides codes and explanation for anatomical parts of fish skeletons used in the archive and to record Quadrant archaeological fish remains (Colley 2006b; Colley in prep.).


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