AutoZooMS: Integrating robotics into high-throughput ZooMS for the species identification of archaeofaunal remains at Grotte Mandrin, France

Abstract

Abstract As the vast majority of excavated archaeofaunal skeletal remains are fragmentary to the extent that they cannot be identified by morphological analysis alone, various molecular methods have been considered to retrieve information from an otherwise underutilised resource. The introduction of collagen fingerprinting, known as Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS), has become one of the most popular approaches to improve taxonomic data yields from fragmentary bone. However, few studies have analysed large numbers of samples. Here we test the incorporation of liquid-handling robots to further develop ZooMS into a more automated technique using samples excavated from Grotte Mandrin, France. By increasing the faunal identifications of the B2 layer (~42-44 Ka) at Grotte Mandrin from 55 to 1037, we identified a wider range of taxa, now including bear and mammoth, as well as further remains of hominin. AutoZooMS has the capacity to investigate larger proportions of archaeofaunal assemblages rapidly and cost effectively whilst requiring little human intervention, aiming to improve our understanding of the human past.