Animal body size estimation from zooarchaeological specimens often relies on specific, one-dimensional (i.e., conventional) measures from skeletal elements. Here, we introduce an animal body size estimation technique for archaeological fishes that relies on 3D reference scans and the calculation of centroid size, a standard 3D geometric morphometric proxy measure for organism size. Centroid size-based estimations on whole caudal vertebrae are strongly correlated with a widely accepted measure (i.e., centrum width), but the scalability and flexibility of the centroid size-based approach allows for use on a wide variety of fragmented remains. We use zooarchaeological fish remains (subfamily Ictiobinae) from late pre-Hispanic period large village sites located in the Middle Rio Grande region of New Mexico. Informal reports suggest that fishes were large during this time, and we demonstrate that ictiobines were significantly large compared to modern specimens. The centroid size-based body size estimation technique indicates that Ancestral Pueblo fishing strategies were associated with energy maximizing foraging behavior.

从动物考古标本中估计动物体型通常依赖于骨骼元素的特定一维（即常规）测量值。在这里，我们介绍了一种用于考古鱼类的动物体型估计技术，该技术依赖于 3D 参考扫描和质心大小的计算，质心大小是生物体大小的标准 3D 几何形态测量代理测量。对整个尾椎骨的基于质心大小的估计与广泛接受的测量值（即椎体宽度）密切相关，但基于质心大小的方法的可扩展性和灵活性允许在各种碎片化遗骸上使用。我们使用来自新墨西哥州中格兰德州中部格兰德河地区的前西班牙时期晚期大村庄遗址的动物考古鱼类遗骸（亚科 Ictiobinae）。非正式报告表明，这段时间的鱼很大，我们证明与现代标本相比，鱼腥藻明显大。基于质心大小的体型估计技术表明，祖先普韦布洛捕鱼策略与能量最大化觅食行为有关。