Barcoding the largest animals on Earth: ongoing challenges and molecular solutions in the taxonomic identification of ancient cetaceans

TY - JOUR

T1 - Barcoding the largest animals on Earth

T2 - ongoing challenges and molecular solutions in the taxonomic identification of ancient cetaceans

AU - Speller, Camilla

AU - Van Den Hurk, Youri

AU - Charpentier, Anne

AU - Rodrigues, Ana

AU - Gardeisen, Armelle

AU - Wilkens, Barbara

AU - McGrath, Krista

AU - Rowsell, Keri

AU - Spindler, Luke

AU - Collins, Matthew

AU - Hofreiter, Michael

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - Over the last few centuries, many cetacean species have witnessed dramatic global declines due to industrial overharvesting and other anthropogenic influences, and thus are key targets for conservation. Whale bones recovered from archaeological and palaeontological contexts can provide essential baseline information on the past geographical distribution and abundance of species required for developing informed conservation policies. Here we review the challenges with identifying whale bones through traditional anatomical methods, as well as the opportunities provided by new molecular analyses. Through a case study focused on the North Sea, we demonstrate how the utility of this (pre)historic data is currently limited by a lack of accurate taxonomic information for the majority of ancient cetacean remains. We then discuss current opportunities presented by molecular identification methods such as DNA barcoding and collagen peptide mass fingerprinting (zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry), and highlight the importance of molecular identifications in assessing ancient species’ distributions through a case study focused on the Mediterranean. We conclude by considering high-throughput molecular approaches such as hybridization capture followed by next-generation sequencing as cost-effective approaches for enhancing the ecological informativeness of these ancient sample sets.

AB - Over the last few centuries, many cetacean species have witnessed dramatic global declines due to industrial overharvesting and other anthropogenic influences, and thus are key targets for conservation. Whale bones recovered from archaeological and palaeontological contexts can provide essential baseline information on the past geographical distribution and abundance of species required for developing informed conservation policies. Here we review the challenges with identifying whale bones through traditional anatomical methods, as well as the opportunities provided by new molecular analyses. Through a case study focused on the North Sea, we demonstrate how the utility of this (pre)historic data is currently limited by a lack of accurate taxonomic information for the majority of ancient cetacean remains. We then discuss current opportunities presented by molecular identification methods such as DNA barcoding and collagen peptide mass fingerprinting (zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry), and highlight the importance of molecular identifications in assessing ancient species’ distributions through a case study focused on the Mediterranean. We conclude by considering high-throughput molecular approaches such as hybridization capture followed by next-generation sequencing as cost-effective approaches for enhancing the ecological informativeness of these ancient sample sets.

KW - Ancient DNA

KW - Archaeozoology

KW - Cetaceans

KW - Collagen peptide mass fingerprinting

KW - Species identification

KW - Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry

U2 - 10.1098/rstb.2015.0332

DO - 10.1098/rstb.2015.0332

M3 - Review

C2 - 27481784

AN - SCOPUS:84982843716

SN - 0962-8436

VL - 371

JO - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

JF - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

IS - 1702

M1 - 20150332

ER -