engleski

Finding hominin bones from the Palaeolithic using collagen peptide mass sequencing (ZooMS)

Ancient DNA sequencing has shed significant light upon our knowledge of archaic and modern humans during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. Many Palaeolithic sites contain large numbers of bones, but due to the combination of post-depositional influences and carnivore processing of bone remains, many of them lack the diagnostic features required for identification of bone to specific taxon. Human remains dating to this period are, therefore, very rare. We have been applying a method of collagen fingerprinting to screen Palaeolithic bone fragments to identify the species/taxon of the bone, and importantly, to identify bone which has characteristic unique human peptides. The method utilizes mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF-ToF) to produce a spectrum of peptide masses. Different species disclose small differences in the sequence of these peptides that enable them to be identified. Thus far we have found 4 new human fossil bone fragments from >4, 000 undiagnostic bone remains, ranging down to as small as 23 mm in length. We have screened bone from the Palaeolithic archaeological sites of Denisova Cave (Russia) and Vindija Cave (Croatia). We then carried out DNA sequencing to the bone fragments to identify into which human group they fall. At Denisova Cave, we previously identified a tiny bone as a hominin and showed, using DNA methods, that its mitochondrial DNA was of the Neanderthal type (Denisova 11). We have identified 2 additional bones which have been genetically analysed. At Vindija Cave we identified a new bone fragment from the G1 level and found that it had the same mtDNA sequence as another Neanderthal from the same site but a deeper level. We also found evidence for human processing on this bone in the form of cut-marks. We directly dated the bones using single amino acid dating of hydroxyproline. We will describe the significance of the new fossil finds in terms of the archaeological sequences at both sites. Collagen fingerprinting has immense potential for identifying hominin remains in highly fragmentary archaeological assemblages. Coupled with DNA analysis and direct dating, this method should be widely applied to previously excavated archaeological materials.

ZooMS analysis, Vindija Cave, Denisova Cave, Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition, DNA analysis

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