Peters Carli, Richter Kristine K, Manne Tiina, Dortch Joe, Paterson Alistair, Travouillon Kenny, Louys Julien, Price Gilbert J, Petraglia Michael, Crowther Alison, Boivin Nicole
Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.
Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
R Soc Open Sci. 2021 Oct 27;8(10):211229. doi: 10.1098/rsos.211229. eCollection 2021 Oct.
The study of faunal remains from archaeological sites is often complicated by the presence of large numbers of highly fragmented, morphologically unidentifiable bones. In Australia, this is the combined result of harsh preservation conditions and frequent scavenging by marsupial carnivores. The collagen fingerprinting method known as zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) offers a means to address these challenges and improve identification rates of fragmented bones. Here, we present novel ZooMS peptide markers for 24 extant marsupial and monotreme species that allow for genus-level distinctions between these species. We demonstrate the utility of these new peptide markers by using them to taxonomically identify bone fragments from a nineteenth-century colonial-era pearlshell fishery at Bandicoot Bay, Barrow Island. The suite of peptide biomarkers presented in this study, which focus on a range of ecologically and culturally important species, have the potential to significantly amplify the zooarchaeological and paleontological record of Australia.
对考古遗址动物遗骸的研究常常因存在大量高度破碎、形态上无法识别的骨头而变得复杂。在澳大利亚，这是恶劣保存条件和有袋食肉动物频繁觅食的综合结果。被称为质谱动物考古学（ZooMS）的胶原蛋白指纹识别方法提供了一种应对这些挑战并提高破碎骨头识别率的手段。在这里，我们展示了针对24种现存有袋动物和单孔目动物的新型ZooMS肽标记物，这些标记物能够在属级水平上区分这些物种。我们通过使用这些新的肽标记物对来自巴罗岛班迪古湾一个19世纪殖民时期珍珠贝渔业遗址的骨头碎片进行分类鉴定，展示了它们的实用性。本研究中呈现的这套肽生物标志物聚焦于一系列具有生态和文化重要性的物种，有潜力显著扩充澳大利亚的动物考古学和古生物学记录。
