Abstract
Paleobotanical studies in California have greatly contributed to our understanding of the timing and distribution of the emergence of intensive acorn economies in the region. Past studies have placed priority on quantifying the amount of acorn macrofossils in the archaeological record, however, fine-grained studies differentiating oak species have not been pursued. There are distinct qualitative differences between species that affect their desirability for native groups. Assessing these differences can give insight on preference, access, and storability of acorns. In order to see which species of acorns are present in archaeological assemblages, a method must first be developed to distinguish between the remains of different species.The goal of this thesis is to develop an easily accessible dichotomous key for taxonomic identification based on morphological features. This study uses a statistical approach to differentiate between five different oak species. The species selected for this study are; Notholithocarpus densiflorus (tanoak), Quercus kelloggii (black oak), Q. douglasii (blue oak), Q. wislizenii (interior live oak) and Q. lobata (valley oak).
The present research found that oak species can be generally distinguished using metric data, although there is significant overlap between certain taxa. Future research should add to the metric data of modern specimens and expand the reference collection to include more species. This method can be applied to archaeological contexts to evaluate diachronic changes in diet on a local or regional scale and to assess the fluctuating importance of different oaks species in the material record.