DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6fb6676
title: Data from: Preserved collagen reveals species identity in archaeological marine turtle bones from Caribbean and Florida sites

description: 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.
description: 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