Palaeoproteomic analyses of dog palaeofaeces reveal a preserved dietary and host digestive proteome ...

The domestic dog has inhabited the anthropogenic niche for at least 15 000 years, but despite their impact on human strategies, the lives of dogs and their interactions with humans have only recently become a subject of interest to archaeologists. In the Arctic, dogs rely exclusively on humans for f...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Runge, Anne Kathrine W., Hendy, Jessica, Richter, Kristine K., Masson-MacLean, Edouard, Britton, Kate, Mackie, Meaghan, McGrath, Krista, Collins, Matthew, Cappellini, Enrico, Speller, Camilla
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: The Royal Society 2021
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Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.72372
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/324918
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Summary:The domestic dog has inhabited the anthropogenic niche for at least 15 000 years, but despite their impact on human strategies, the lives of dogs and their interactions with humans have only recently become a subject of interest to archaeologists. In the Arctic, dogs rely exclusively on humans for food during the winter, and while stable isotope analyses have revealed dietary similarities at some sites, deciphering the details of provisioning strategies have been challenging. In this study, we apply zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry to dog palaeofaeces to investigate protein preservation in this highly degradable material and obtain information about the diet of domestic dogs at the Nunalleq site, Alaska. We identify a suite of digestive and metabolic proteins from the host species, demonstrating the utility of this material as a novel and viable substrate for the recovery of gastrointestinal proteomes. The recovered proteins revealed that the ...