Barcoding the largest animals on earth: on-going challenges and molecular solutions in the taxonomic identification of ancient cetaceans

TY - JOUR

T1 - Barcoding the largest animals on earth

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

AU - Speller, Camilla Filomena

AU - van den Hurk, Youri

AU - Charpentier, Anne

AU - Rodrigues, Ana

AU - Gardiesen, Armelle

AU - Wilkens, Barbara

AU - McGrath, Krista

AU - Rowsell, Keri Elizabeth

AU - Spindler, Luke

AU - Collins, Matthew James

AU - Hofreiter, Michael Stefan

N1 - © Authors 2016

PY - 2016/8/1

Y1 - 2016/8/1

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 a key target for conservation. Whale bones recovered from archaeological and paleontological contexts can provide essential baseline information on the past geographic 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 discuss current opportunities presented by molecular identification methods such as DNA barcoding and collagen peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS), 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 hybridisation 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 a key target for conservation. Whale bones recovered from archaeological and paleontological contexts can provide essential baseline information on the past geographic 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 discuss current opportunities presented by molecular identification methods such as DNA barcoding and collagen peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS), 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 hybridisation 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 - ZooMS

KW - SPECIES IDENTIFICATION

M3 - Article

SN - 1471-2970

VL - 371

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

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

M1 - 20150332

ER -