Improved Taxonomic Resolution of Eurasian Cervidae Using Collagen Peptide Mass Fingerprinting

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The human-deer relationship extends deep into antiquity, with many members of the Cervidae family long being utilized as raw materials, foodstuff, medicine, as well as ceremonial objects. However, few studies have emphasized species identification within the Cervidae family, largely due to morphological similarities between different Cervid species, and between Cervids and other sympatric species in the Bovidae and Moschidae families. While developments in Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) reveal much potential in overcoming traditional identification issues, existing reference markers for the Cervidae family remain inherently limited in resolution. Therefore, we generated new ZooMS peptide markers for 5 species (Cervus nippon, Muntiacus muntjak, Muntiacus reevsi, Hydropotes inermis, and Cervus canadensis) in the Cervidae family, 2 species in the Bovidae family (Gazella subgutturosa, Procapra gutturosa) and 1 species in the Moschidae family (Moschus moschiferus). We discovered novel candidate ZooMS marker regions for species in the Cervidae, Bovidae, and Moschidae families, with identification down to the tribe or species level. The applicability of our biomarkers are further verified using zooarchaeological datasets from East and Central Asia. Together, we present a robust, alternative method that distinguishes medium and large mammal specimens under the Cervidae, Bovidae, and Moschidae families in archaeological settings.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51489