To this day, the only sturgeon to be listed on the French vertebrate inventory is the European sturgeon (
À ce jour, le seul esturgeon retenu sur la liste des Vertébrés de France est l’esturgeon européen (
The remains dug up through archaeological excavations represent an essential source of information for the history of biodiversity. They are the most reliable evidence to confront present with past populations. In the case of extinct species, they represent the only proof of a former existence. In France, the sole sturgeon species described as native during the Holocene in fauna inventories listed on the national territory is, to this day, the European sturgeon See the National Inventory of the natural Heritage (
In the context of sturgeon restoration projects implemented to preserve these worldwide threatened and endangered species, The sturgeons are protected by several international conventions: The Washington Convention (CITES), 1973; The Bern Convention, 1979; The Bonn Convention, 1979; OSPAR Convention, 1992; The Barcelona Convention, 1995; The Convention on biological diversity, 1992. Since 1982, it is forbidden to catch sturgeon in France. The sturgeon is a species appearing in the II and IV appendix of the “Directive Habitats” and is categorized as critically endangered worldwide by the UICN. On the national level it used to inhabit most of the large rivers but has little by little disappeared from the Seine, the Rhine, the Rhone and the Loire basins. Today, at European level, it profits from a research and a protection project and from three «
The remains dug up during archaeological excavations performed in stratigraphy and according to meticulous recording methods turn out to be extremely important: they represent the most reliable factual data. They allow us today to announce the presence in France of a second species, usually thriving along the North-American Atlantic coast: the Atlantic sturgeon (or black sturgeon).
The results shown here come from archaeozoological analyses carried out on three sites ( Le Langon (Vendée) once located next to the “ the site of Brion, in Saint-Germain d’Esteuil, on the Gironde River estuary, has brought up the discovery of 65 sturgeon remains that spread out over five centuries (from the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD) according to the excavations Director P. Garmy the third site on which we will focus is connected to the Neolithic and dates back to late 4th – early 3rd millennium BC, according to L. Laporte, Director of the excavations
These sister species have for a long time been considered as the same species. Morphological
For the archaeozoologist, only a few morphological elements from the bony parts can be considered because the majority of archaeological remains come from the exoskeleton, especially fragments from the dermal scutes (it should be noted that each specimen has a hundred of them spread out in five rows). Naturalized specimens found in museums can provide information about the morphology of the external bone elements. The examination of several sturgeons from both species kept at the MNHN (Paris) represented the starting point of observations on the surface of dermal scutes, which led us to the conclusion that
Among the list of differences established by Magnin between the two species
In the three sites mentioned above, parts of the elements from the exoskeleton present on their surface deep and circular alveoli, separated by thin septa
In a recent study about the fish remains from Neolithic sites on the Oléron island, handed to the editor before obtaining a complete
Today we can say that our hypotheses are confirmed and that the two species are present on the Oléron island, the majority of the specimens being the the
Sturgeon restoration projects in Germany, in rivers flowing into the Baltic Sea are at the root of several original publishings and have modified the ideas previously admitted (that is to say:
The hypothesis of a hybridation between both species has been proposed and confirmed
The authors have all used the morphology of scutes described by Magnin for their discrimination of the archaeological material, alongside palaeogenetical analyses. They all come to the conclusion that this is the first establishment of this American species in Europe and the oldest evidence of this colonisation.
Our results modify these assertions.
The search for other archaeological sturgeon remains will allow us to increase our knowledge in terms of spatiotemporal spreading of both species. The reexamination of bones systematically determined as
The presence in France of the Atlantic sturgeon inhabited rivers and lived along the French Atlantic coasts long before the sturgeon population identified in the Baltic Sea. There, this very cold period (the Little Ice Age) may have been a favourable climate for the establishment of the species in the Baltic Sea during the Middle Age. But our discoveries show that the species was already present in the French Atlantic region 5000 years ago (at the end of the 4th millennium BC), and was still present until approximately 200 AD; moreover
Following these results, new studies (morphological, biomolecular) will be decisive in order to select the relevant species to be reintroduced within the scope of sturgeon restoration projects under way in several European rivers.
We would like to thank: E. Bernard, P. Garmy, L. Laporte, the archaeologists Directors of the three sites who have trustingly lent me the sturgeon remains and provided me all the chronostratigraphical information concerning their sites; Y. Dréano who has informed me about the presence of sturgeon remains in Langon; in Quebec, M. Courtemanche, P. Corbeil, P. Dumont, H. Massé for having offered me an in Poland, D. Makowiecki for the photographs of polish M. Lepage and his CEMAGREF colleagues for the J.-D. Strich for the photographs of bones and C. Perrot for the illustrations infography; also J.-M. Paillard and Marylynn Riley for the English revision of the text.
Location of mentioned archaeological sites.
Fig. 1. Carte des sites archéologiques cités.
Modern dorsal scutes of
Fig. 2. Écussons dorsaux modernes montrant les différences entre
Le Langon: dorsal scute of
Fig. 3. Le Langon : écusson dorsal d’
Arles, Jardin d’Hiver: lateral scute showing the characteristic pattern of
Fig. 4. Arles, Jardin d’Hiver : écusson latéral présentant la surface caractéristique d’
Brion, Saint-Germain d’Esteuil: fragmentary dermal plates of
Fig. 5. Brion, Saint-Germain d’Esteuil : fragments de plaques dermiques d’
Ponthezières, Oléron island: fragmentary scutes of
Fig. 6. Ponthezières, île d’Oléron : fragments d’écussons d’