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Archaeological Collagen Fingerprinting in the Neotropics; Protein Survival in 6000 Year Old Dwarf Deer Remains from Pedro González Island, Pearl Islands, Panama

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Zooarchaeology in the Neotropics

Abstract

Archaeological faunal remains from the humid tropics have long been known to suffer from poor preservation which hinders biomolecular approaches to objective species identification and phylogenetic analysis using DNA. However, a new technique of collagen analysis by soft-ionization mass spectrometry offers a means to access such molecular information from the tropics that are typically regions of greatest worldwide biodiversity. This work explores the application of collagen analyses to remains of a dwarf deer of uncertain ancestry discovered in a ~6000 year old shell-bearing midden on Pedro González Island (Panama). The sub-fossil deer’s tiny size, the extreme cultural modification of >2400 specimens, and the rarity of complete bones and antlers prevented objective identification below Family level. Collagen fingerprinting analyses reveal that both the Pedro González island archaeological deer and an extant small deer on San José Island 8 km away, are closely related but do not have a close affinity with the Central American red brocket deer (Mazama temama Kerr 1792). Using these methods, their closest affinity appears to be with a group of cervids that comprises the North and Central American white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmerman 1780) and populations of the Amazonian brown brocket deer (M. nemorivaga Cuvier 1817).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note that our specimens were listed as M. gouazoubira, but sampled from a dataset in which these identifications pre-dated the taxonomic split between gray and brown brocket populations, hence given locality, supported by difference from Argentinian specimens, are assumed as M. nemorivaga.

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Acknowledgements

The Pearl Island project (2007–2010) was supported by funds from Panama’s Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENACYT), the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s education programs. Field logistics were coordinated by Reynaldo Tapia and Conrado Tapia. Juan J. Amado, then of the Pearl Island Development Company, and INGEMAR (Panama), generously provided funds for travel, subsistence, archaeology and student participation on Pedro González Island in 2009 and 2010. Test excavations at Playa Don Bernardo benefitted greatly from the assistance of Clara Arango, Eugenia Mellado, Marlene Klages, Yessi Ortiz, Ninel Pleitez, and Aureliano Valencia. Laboratory analyses by MB were supported by funding from the NERC and the Royal Society and carried out in The University of Manchester’s Faculty of Life Sciences Biomolecular Analysis Core Research Facility as well as the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. Special thanks are due to several members of the Pedro González community who assisted in the excavations. This research would not have been possible without Mazama samples graciously provided by the Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, Villa de Leyva, Colombia, thanks to the courtesy of Carlos Jaramillo and Claudia Alejandra Uribe Medina. Lastly, thanks are due also de Raiza and Roxana Segundo for assistance with images.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Life Sciences, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, Manchester, M1 7DN, UK

    Michael Buckley

  2. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama

    Richard G. Cooke, María Fernanda Martínez, Máximo Jiménez & Alexandra Lara

  3. Universidad de Antioquia, Calle 67 Número 53-108, Medellín, Colombia

    Fernando Bustamante

  4. Universidad del Norte, Km 5 via Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla, Colombia

    Juan Guillermo Martín

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  1. Michael Buckley
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  2. Richard G. Cooke
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Correspondence to Michael Buckley .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Zooarqueología y Tafonomía de Zonas Áridas (LaZTA), IDACOR, CONICET/Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina

    Mariana Mondini

  2. Laboratorio de Zooarqueología y Tafonomía de Zonas Áridas (LaZTA), IDACOR, CONICET/Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina

    A. Sebastián Muñoz

  3. Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano—CONICET, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Pablo M. Fernández

Author Contributions

Author Contributions

MB designed and undertook the biochemical research. He planned and wrote the article with RGC. RGC designed and supervised the archaeological field work on the Pearl Island archipelago (2007–2010). FB and JGM directed excavations at the Playa Don Bernardo site and also analyzed material culture. AL participated in the Playa Don Bernardo excavations and assisted with the curation and preliminary analysis of the archaeofaunas. MJ undertook the initial analysis of all the vertebrate remains. MFM updated and expanded the analysis of the cervid remains and organized materials for photography.

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Buckley, M. et al. (2017). Archaeological Collagen Fingerprinting in the Neotropics; Protein Survival in 6000 Year Old Dwarf Deer Remains from Pedro González Island, Pearl Islands, Panama. In: Mondini, M., Muñoz, A., Fernández, P. (eds) Zooarchaeology in the Neotropics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57328-1_10

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