ZooMS

Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry, commonly referred to by the abbreviation ZooMS, is a scientific method that identifies animal species by means of characteristic peptide sequences in the protein collagen.

ZooMS is the most common archaeological application of peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF) and can be used for species identification of bones, teeth, skin and antler.

Archaeologists use these species identification to study among others past environments, diet and raw material selection for the production of tools.

The bones of these two closely related species are difficult to distinguish, especially when fragmented, yet the difference between these two common domesticates is very important for our understanding of past husbandry practices.

In 2011 an alternative extraction method was published that used an ammonium bicarbonate buffer to solubilise the collagen without dissolving the mineral matrix.

However, instead of using an eraser, this microgrid protocol employs a fine polishing film to remove very small amounts of material from a sample.

[9] The membrane box protocol is based on contact electrification, which is the generation of electrostatic forces due to small localised differences in charge between two objects.

ZooMS identifies species based on differences in the amino acid composition of the collagen protein.

Trypsin cleaves the protein after every arginine or lysine amino acid in its sequence, resulting in peptide fragments of predictable masses.