New collagen peptide markers from New Guinea fauna: identifying archaeological bone in the tropics
More On Article
- The MicroStratDNA Group visits the ESRF
- Lange Nacht der Forschung 2026
- LEGION Project Led by HEAS Member Dominik Hagmann Approved Within the Heritage Science Austria 2.0 Programme
- Sexual Dimorphism in the Association Between Status Symbols and Body Height in the Early Medieval Avar Population from the Csokorgasse Burial Ground (Vienna, Austria).
- µCT scanning effects on aDNA and a multi-step workflow for archaeological petrous portions.
Oertle, A., Peters, C., Summerhayes, G., O’Connor, S., Gillespie, R., Douka, K., 2025. New collagen peptide markers from New Guinea fauna: identifying archaeological bone in the tropics. Royal Society Open Science 12.
Abstract
The Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological records of the New Guinea are sparse and poorly understood, yet are hugely relevant for understanding early human dispersals and subsistence strategies in the region. Traditional zooarchaeological and palaeoanthropological approaches are the first line of evidence, however, preservation and fragmentation of bone can be so severe that taxonomic identification is not possible. Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) allows for the taxonomic identification of otherwise non-unidentifiable bones. For such identifications, an adequate reference database is required to match the unknown collagen mass fingerprints to those deriving from morphologically known taxa. Here, to our knowledge, in the first study of its kind in New Guinea, 24 new collagen peptide markers are presented for local fauna that enable taxonomic identifications of commonly found regional taxa. Our new markers were applied to archaeological bone fragments from the New Guinea highlands (Kiowa), lowlands (Kria Cave) and coast (Watinglo, Lachitu), with results showing greater collagen preservation in the highlands compared with the coastal and lowland regions. The development of new collagen markers for New Guinea fauna expands the application of ZooMS within one of the world’s most biodiverse regions, opening up valuable new opportunities for research in archaeology, palaeontology, ecology and conservation.