Osteometrics of South-Central Andean Wild Camelids: New Standards 11 Mariana Mondini and A. Sebastia ´n Mu~ noz 11.1 Introduction and Background South American camelids have been staple prey in the Andean-Patagonian Neo- tropics ever since humans colonized the region, especially throughout the Holocene, and they have been the subject of domestication processes (Miotti and Salemme 2004; Mengoni Go~ nalons and Yacobaccio 2006; Bonavia 2008; Wheeler 2012; Borrero 2013, and bibliography therein). They comprise two wild species, the guanaco (Lama guanicoe) and the vicu~ na (Vicugna vicugna), as well as two domestic ones, the llama (Lama glama) and the alpaca (Vicugna pacos), where the llama descended from the guanaco and the alpaca from the vicu~ na (Wheeler 1995; Kadwell et al. 2001; Marı ´n et al. 2007, among others). Guanacos (80–130 kg) and llamas (80–150 kg) are larger, while vicu~ nas (35–50 kg) and alpacas (55–65 kg) are smaller (Elkin et al. 1991; Mengoni Go~ nalons and Yacobaccio 2006, and references therein), all of them bearing low sexual dimorphism (Yacobaccio 2006, 2010; Kaufmann 2009; Kaufmann and L’Heureux 2009; Cartajena 2009). The osteometry of Neotropical camelids has been the subject of research and discussion over the past century, and it has drawn increasing attention in recent years, given its potential to segregate species, both wild and domestic (for a more detailed review, see Menegaz et al. 1988; Mengoni Go~ nalons and Yacobaccio M. Mondini (*) Laboratorio de Zooarqueologı ´a y Tafonomı ´a de Zonas A ´ ridas (LaZTA), IDACOR, CONICET/ Universidad Nacional de Co ´rdoba, Av. H. Yrigoyen 174, 5000 Co ´rdoba, Argentina Facultad de Filosofı ´a y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Auto ´ noma de Buenos Aires, Co ´rdoba, Argentina e-mail: mmondini@conicet.gov.ar A. Sebastia ´n Mu~ noz Laboratorio de Zooarqueologı ´a y Tafonomı ´a de Zonas A ´ ridas (LaZTA), IDACOR, CONICET/ Universidad Nacional de Co ´rdoba, Av. H. Yrigoyen 174, 5000 Co ´rdoba, Argentina e-mail: smunoz@conicet.gov.ar # Springer International Publishing AG 2017 M. Mondini et al. (eds.), Zooarchaeology in the Neotropics, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57328-1_11 177