10.5061/DRYAD.6FB6676
Buckley, Michael
0000-0002-4166-8213
University of Manchester
Harvey, Virginia L.
0000-0003-0796-8287
University of Manchester
LeFebvre, Michelle J.
0000-0002-1741-9997
Florida Museum of Natural History
deFrance, Susan D.
University of Florida
Toftgaard, Casper
University of Copenhagen
Kitchener, Andrew C.
University of Edinburgh
Data from: Preserved collagen reveals species identity in archaeological
marine turtle bones from Caribbean and Florida sites
Dryad
dataset
2019
Caretta caretta
Eretmochelys imbricata
ZooMS
Dermochelys coriacea
Chelonia mydas
Lepidochelys kempii
Lepidochelys olivacea
green turtle
species identification
Natator depressus
marine turtles
collagen fingerprinting
Royal Society
https://ror.org/03wnrjx87
URF120473
2019-10-20T00:00:00Z
2019-10-20T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191137
1313450732 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Advancements in molecular science are continually improving our
understanding of marine turtle biology and evolution. However, there are
still considerable gaps in our understanding, such as past marine turtle
distributions, which can benefit from advanced zooarchaeological analyses.
Here we apply collagen fingerprinting to 130 archaeological marine turtle
bone samples up to 2500 years old from the Caribbean and Florida’s Gulf
Coast for faunal identification, finding the vast majority of samples
(88%) to contain preserved collagen despite deposition in the tropics. All
samples can be identified to species-level with the exception of the
Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) and olive ridley (L. olivacea)
turtles, which can be separated to genus level, having diverged from one
another only ~5 million years ago. Additionally, we identify a single
homologous peptide that allows the separation of archaeological green
turtle samples, Chelonia spp., into two distinct groups, which potentially
signifies a difference in genetic stock. The majority of the
archaeological samples are identified as green turtle (Chelonia spp.;
63%), with hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata; 17%) and ridley turtles
(Lepidochelys spp.; 3%) making up smaller proportions of the assemblage.
There were no molecular identifications of the loggerhead turtle (Caretta
caretta) in the assemblage despite 9% of the samples being morphologically
identified as such, highlighting the difficulties in relying on
morphological identifications alone in archaeological remains. Finally, we
present the first marine turtle molecular phylogeny using collagen (I)
amino acid sequences and find our analyses match recent phylogenies based
on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. Our results highlight the advantage of
using collagen fingerprinting to supplement morphological analyses of
turtle bones and support the usefulness of this technique for assessing
their past distributions across the Caribbean and Florida’s Gulf Coast,
especially in these tropical environments where DNA preservation may be
poor.
Loggerhead turtleLoggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) proteome sequence
file (.mgf)Caretta-caretta_FLMNH_M-54206.raw.mgfGreen turtle
(Pacific)Green turtle (Chelonia mydas; Pacific clade) proteome sequence
file (.mgf)Chelonia-mydas_FLMNH_57247_PACIFIC.raw.mgfGreen turtle
(Atlantic)Green turtle (Chelonia mydas; Atlantic clade) proteome sequence
file (.mgf)Chelonia-mydas_UF42972_ATLANTIC.raw.mgfLeatherback
turtleLeatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) proteome sequence file
(.mgf)Dermochelys-coriacea_FLMNH_37557.raw.mgfHawksbill turtleHawksbill
turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) proteome sequence file
(.mgf)Eretmochelys-imbricata_FLMNH_62368.raw.mgfKemp's ridley
turtleKemp's ridley turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) proteome sequence
file (.mgf)Lepidochelys-kempii_FLMNH_22371.raw.mgfOlive ridley turtleOlive
ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) proteome sequence file
(.mgf)Lepidochelys-olivacea_FLMNH_44952.raw.mgfFlatback turtleFlatback
turtle (Natator depressus) proteome sequence file
(.mgf)Natator-depressus_WAM-R177325.raw.mgf
Florida's Gulf Coast
Caribbean
Florida