用胶原蛋白发现澳大利亚动物骨头

How do scientists determine which animal a bone has come from? When it’s large or recent, the bone’s shape and DNA can usually provide enough information. But older bone fragments, like those often found around archaeological sites, are much harder to recognise.

Collagen – a protein found in bones, skin, hair, and teeth – can help. While the protein is present across all animal species, it’s changed slightly as each of those animals have evolved. This means that the chemical signature of collagen can be used to find the genus, and sometimes the species, of the owner of the bone.

“Traditionally zooarchaeologists – who are the archaeologists that study the remains of animals – use visual differences and the shape of bones and teeth to identify them,” explains Dr Tiina Manne, a zooarchaeologist at the University of Queensland.

“In Australia, a lot of the bone is quite fragmented, and because we have such high diversity of species, it can be really challenging to identify the taxa.”

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Read more:发现了古老的鲨鱼牙收藏

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通过质谱或变焦的一种称为ZooArchaeology的技术正在改变场地。通过检查动物之间胶原蛋白的化学差异，“可以真正磨练”。

ZooMS works by taking a small fragment of collagen-containing tissue (as small as a milligram), dissolving it with enzymes and running it through a device called a mass spectrometer, which finds the weight of atoms and fragments of molecules.

This generates a “spectrum”, a chemical signature specific to the collagen of the original animal.

Spectra from known animals can be used to spot unfamiliar bones. “When you’ve got a good match, then you can say confidently that that’s what that animal is,” says Manne.

变焦有多精确？曼恩说：“这与动物过去的分歧有关。”“如果您的物种多样性很高[…]，您可能最终会停在属。”

It could spot the difference between an eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) and a red kangaroo (Osphranter rufus), for instance, but not an eastern and a western grey (大孔富吉尼群).

Manne is co-author on a纸inRoyal Society Open Science, which has described the collagen signatures of 24 different Australian species.

研究人员使用这些数据在19^thcentury pearl-shell fishery on Barrow Island, in Western Australia. Bones from one species – the green sea turtle – were found at a spot that suggests they were being targeted for food by the Indigenous pearl divers who were forced to work on the island. “This further adds to the story of survival for indentured Aboriginal divers on Barrow Island,” write the researchers in their paper.

Manne says the reference spectra they’ve developed can be used to identify more animal bones around the country.

“这项技术确实具有超出过去的更多潜力。”