Ancient DNA preserved in small bone fragments from the P.W. Lund collection

The Lund collection is one of the oldest subfossil collections in the world. The vast assemblage of subfossils was collected in the 1830s and 1840s by Peter Wilhelm Lund in Lagoa Santa, Brazil, and was shipped to Copenhagen in 1848, where it was stored in various locations around the city with littl...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Seersholm, Frederik V., Hansen, K.L., Heydenrych, Matthew, Hansen, A.J., Bunce, Michael, Allentoft, Morten
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: WILEY 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP160104473
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90791
_version_ 1848765429353283584
author Seersholm, Frederik V.
Hansen, K.L.
Heydenrych, Matthew
Hansen, A.J.
Bunce, Michael
Allentoft, Morten
author_facet Seersholm, Frederik V.
Hansen, K.L.
Heydenrych, Matthew
Hansen, A.J.
Bunce, Michael
Allentoft, Morten
author_sort Seersholm, Frederik V.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The Lund collection is one of the oldest subfossil collections in the world. The vast assemblage of subfossils was collected in the 1830s and 1840s by Peter Wilhelm Lund in Lagoa Santa, Brazil, and was shipped to Copenhagen in 1848, where it was stored in various locations around the city with little attention for the future preservation of the collection. So far, successful genetic research on the material collected by Lund has been limited to two samples of human petrous bone. However, less is known about the preservation conditions of the vast amounts of small and fragmentary bones stored in the collection. To address this, we studied ancient DNA from bulk bone samples of approximately 100 bone fragments from the P.W. Lund collection from boxes with varying degrees of physical preservation conditions. Using bulk bone metabarcoding, we found a high species diversity in all samples. In total, we identified 17 species, representing 11 mammals, two birds, one fish, and three frogs. Of these, two species are new to the collection. Collectively, these results exhibit the potential of future genetic studies on the famous P.W. Lund collection and suggest that the effects of poor storage conditions are probably negligible compared with the long-term in situ degradation that specimens undergo before excavation.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T11:35:06Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-90791
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T11:35:06Z
publishDate 2021
publisher WILEY
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-907912023-04-24T01:14:33Z Ancient DNA preserved in small bone fragments from the P.W. Lund collection Seersholm, Frederik V. Hansen, K.L. Heydenrych, Matthew Hansen, A.J. Bunce, Michael Allentoft, Morten Science & Technology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Ecology Evolutionary Biology Environmental Sciences & Ecology ancient DNA bulk bone metabarcoding museum collections palaeontology REVEALS The Lund collection is one of the oldest subfossil collections in the world. The vast assemblage of subfossils was collected in the 1830s and 1840s by Peter Wilhelm Lund in Lagoa Santa, Brazil, and was shipped to Copenhagen in 1848, where it was stored in various locations around the city with little attention for the future preservation of the collection. So far, successful genetic research on the material collected by Lund has been limited to two samples of human petrous bone. However, less is known about the preservation conditions of the vast amounts of small and fragmentary bones stored in the collection. To address this, we studied ancient DNA from bulk bone samples of approximately 100 bone fragments from the P.W. Lund collection from boxes with varying degrees of physical preservation conditions. Using bulk bone metabarcoding, we found a high species diversity in all samples. In total, we identified 17 species, representing 11 mammals, two birds, one fish, and three frogs. Of these, two species are new to the collection. Collectively, these results exhibit the potential of future genetic studies on the famous P.W. Lund collection and suggest that the effects of poor storage conditions are probably negligible compared with the long-term in situ degradation that specimens undergo before excavation. 2021 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90791 10.1002/ece3.7162 English http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP160104473 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ WILEY fulltext
spellingShingle Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
ancient DNA
bulk bone
metabarcoding
museum collections
palaeontology
REVEALS
Seersholm, Frederik V.
Hansen, K.L.
Heydenrych, Matthew
Hansen, A.J.
Bunce, Michael
Allentoft, Morten
Ancient DNA preserved in small bone fragments from the P.W. Lund collection
title Ancient DNA preserved in small bone fragments from the P.W. Lund collection
title_full Ancient DNA preserved in small bone fragments from the P.W. Lund collection
title_fullStr Ancient DNA preserved in small bone fragments from the P.W. Lund collection
title_full_unstemmed Ancient DNA preserved in small bone fragments from the P.W. Lund collection
title_short Ancient DNA preserved in small bone fragments from the P.W. Lund collection
title_sort ancient dna preserved in small bone fragments from the p.w. lund collection
topic Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
ancient DNA
bulk bone
metabarcoding
museum collections
palaeontology
REVEALS
url http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP160104473
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90791