Collagen fingerprints help identify Aussie animals

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-10-27 10:01

Australia; WA

How can you tell if a bone belongs to a koala or a wombat if you only have a tiny fragment? Aussie researchers have used the unique chemical fingerprint of collagen, a protein found in bone, skin, antler and teeth, to identify the remains of Aussie marsupials in a 19th century colonial-era pearlshell fishery on Barrow Island in WA. Animal remains from Australian archaeological sites are often only in small fragments making it difficult to tell what came from who. But slight differences in the make up of the collagen protein between animals has allowed the team to identify the bone fragments. They even identified green sea turtle remains which further adds to the story of survival for indentured Aboriginal divers on Barrow Island.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Species Identification of Australian Marsupials using Collagen Fingerprinting

Royal Society Open Science

Faunal remains from archaeological sites are often highly fragmented, which makes it difficult to identify which species these bones originate from. In Australia, this is the combined result of harsh preservation conditions and frequent scavenging by marsupial carnivores. Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS), has the potential to address these challenges and improve identification rates of fragmented bones. Here, we present new ZooMS markers for twenty-four species that can be used for species identifications. These new markers have the potential to significantly increase the amount of information we can get from zooarchaeological and paleontological remains in Australia.

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research The Royal Society, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Queensland, The University of Western Australia, Griffith University, Western Australian Museum

Funder: This research was supported by the Max Planck Society, and the Australian Research Council (grant no. DP130100802, awarded to T.M. and A.P.; grant no. DE150101597, awarded to T.M.; and grant no. FT150100168, awarded to A.P.).

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.