Zooarchaeology and ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry) Laboratories

These laboratories offer facilities for the morphological and biomolecular identification of osteological remains from archaeological sites.

Our laboratories include some of the only dedicated ZooMS facilities in the world, and house a Bruker Autoflex Speed LRF MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometer, as well as a fully established wet chemistry laboratory for extraction and purification of proteins for peptide mass fingerprinting analyses (ZooMS). In addition to the bioinformatics tools employed in the Proteomics Laboratories, the ZooMS laboratory has access to the FlexAnalysis, mMass, and R-based MALDI data analysis pipelines.

The zooarchaeology laboratories also include facilities for the analyses of osteological (human and faunal) materials, including casts of human skeletal material and hominin skulls. They also house reference specimens of several primate, carnivore, and ungulate species. We are collaborating with international museums to make skeletal casts and replicas to further expand our in-house reference collection while simultaneously building our own taphonomy reference collection.

The laboratory has dedicated microscopes for the study of bone surface modifications and dental microwear. We also conduct 3D scanning /3D morphometric analyses of osteological materials using our Artec Space Spider structured light scanner and a NextEngine 3D laser scanner.