Flatfish are ecologically diverse species that commonly occur in marine environments, but also in estuarine and riverine habitats. This complicates the examination of the potential role of flatfish in the ‘marine fish event horizon’, an economic shift in human exploitation from freshwater to marine fish species during the 10–11th centuries CE around the southern North Sea. This study represents the first multi‐disciplinary investigation of flatfish remains to make species‐specific interpretations of flatfish exploitation. Peptide mass fingerprinting and multi‐isotope analysis of carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N) and sulphur (δ34S) was performed on collagen from 356 archaeological flatfish and 120 comparative archaeological marine or freshwater species to explore the catch habitat of individual flatfish species between 600 and 1600 CE from the North Sea area. European flounder show signals reflecting both freshwater and marine environments, while other flatfish show only those of marine habitats. A subtle shift towards more marine exploitation towards the end of the period is identified, corresponding to the observed transition in targeted species from flounder to plaice throughout the medieval period. Sites show slight differences in δ13C and δ34S within the same species, related to the local environments. Remarkable is the high abundance of marine plaice and flounder during the early medieval period, which shows clear marine or coastal exploitation of flatfish early on, well before the previously accepted onset of the marine fish event horizon. This indicates a gradual shift from coastal to open marine fish exploitation over the medieval period.

中文翻译：

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在正确的时间找到正确的鲽鱼：对比目鱼的多分子分析揭示了历史捕捞栖息地


比目鱼是生态多样化的物种，通常出现在海洋环境中，但也出现在河口和河流栖息地。这使得比目鱼在“海洋鱼类事件视界”中潜在作用的研究变得更加复杂，“海洋鱼类事件视界”是公元 10 至 11 世纪北海南部周围人类从淡水鱼类向海洋鱼类开发的经济转变。这项研究代表了对比目鱼遗骸的首次多学科调查，以对比目鱼的开发做出特定物种的解释。对来自 356 条考古比目鱼和 120 种比较考古海洋或淡水物种的胶原蛋白进行了碳 (δ13C)、氮 (δ15N) 和硫 (δ34S) 的肽质量指纹分析和多同位素分析，以探索 600 种比目鱼个体的捕捞栖息地。公元1600年来自北海地区。欧洲比目鱼显示的信号反映了淡水和海洋环境，而其他比目鱼仅显示海洋栖息地的信号。到了该时期末期，人们发现了向更多海洋开发的微妙转变，这与在整个中世纪时期观察到的目标物种从比目鱼到鲽鱼的转变相对应。不同地点的同一物种内 δ13C 和 δ34S 略有差异，这与当地环境有关。值得注意的是，在中世纪早期，海洋鲽鱼和比目鱼的数量很高，这表明比目鱼很早就在海洋或沿海开发，远早于之前公认的海洋鱼类事件视界的开始。这表明中世纪时期鱼类开采逐渐从沿海转向开放的海洋鱼类。