PhD defence
MS/MS-Based Bone CHIP Species Identification
- D. Mylopotamitaki
- Date
- Thursday 15 May 2025
- Time
- Address
-
Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden
Supervisor(s)
- Prof. dr. J-J. Hublin
- dr. F. Welker
Summary
The research presented in this thesis has demonstrated the successful integration of proteomic taxonomic assignments from morphologically unidentifiable skeletal remains through high-throughput proteomic screening. Computational proteomic analysis enhances and speeds up taxonomic identification of unidentified Pleistocene bone assemblages, highlighting the need to tailor proteomic extraction to the preservation state of the bone proteomes. We confirmed that the recent development in computational LC-MS/MS analysis combined with site-specific extraction protocols, enable taxonomic identification of highly degraded and previously unidentifiable bone remains. Furthermore, the proteomic analysis of the bone assemblages provides critical insights into faunal composition and heterogeneity in bone protein preservation and facilitates a direct identification of hominin bones. This identification allows us to perform additional research, such as ancient DNA, stable isotope analysis, and direct radiocarbon dating, in selected specimens of interest, limiting the cost of a multidisciplinary analysis. We were able to identify, through palaeoproteomics, hominins related to the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician technocomplex for the first time. The direct radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA analysis further assigned the human bone specimens to Homo sapiens, which makes them the earliest Homo sapiens in northwestern Europe dated before 45,000 cal BP. In conclusion, this work demonstrates that palaeoproteomics is a successful tool when exploring human evolution and ancient hominin phylogeny. However, further analytical tools, such as computational pipelines, open-source analytical software and updated reference databases need to be advanced for the complete proteomic analysis of archaeological skeletal proteomes.
PhD dissertations
Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.
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