Exploring Late Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions in North America through Peptide Fingerprinting

Application of zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) analysis in North America remains limited and is hindered by a lack of complete reference peptide markers for a number of Late Pleistocene megafaunal taxa. To address this gap, we aim to characterize collagen peptide markers for a significantly expanded number of extant and extinct mammals to amplify the potential of ZooMS in North American contexts. This will result in an improved ability to reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions and shifts in biodiversity over time, and help assess the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities on Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions in the continent.

For this project we are collaborating with numerous institutions in North America and Europe, including the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, New York State Museum, Charleston Museum, Nevada State Museum, University of Oregon, University of Wyoming and the German Museum of Natural History in Berlin.