FROM SKY AND RIVER

...and swimmers

Hunting wasn't the only livelihood of the communities that periodically settled at Lagar Velho. These Palaeolithic groups also fished in the nearby stream. Remains of salmonids, such as salmon and trout, and cyprinids, like barbel, typical species that live in fluvial environments with fast currents and stony bottoms, were also recovered. This was the Caranguejeira stream during the Upper Palaeolithic. Nowadays, the stream no longer has such a large flow and does not support any fishing.
The vertebrae are the most resistant skeletal parts and therefore the best represented in the archaeological record of the Lagar Velho rockshelter. Given the specificity of these animals' skeletons, it is not always possible to identify them to species level, not even using the Osteological Reference Collections available for archaeozoological research, such as the one housed at the Archaeosciences Laboratory, in Lisbon.