Reconstructing Southern Hemisphere late-Pleistocene and Holocene paleaeo-environments using ancient DNA from cave and swamp-preserved bones and sediments

Abstract

Ancient DNA preserved in macro-fossil remains, coprolites and, more generally, within stratified sediments provides a potentially rich source of information on past environments that complements traditional palaeo-environmental reconstruction methods. Cave sediments are a particularly important source of genetic information for many reasons – caves concentrate faunal remains from surrounding areas via “pit-fall capture” or accumulation of faecal pellets from wide-ranging avian and mammalian predators and scavengers, cave sediments are gener¬ally more protected from erosion and re-working, and caves maintain more constant and lower temperatures than the surrounding environ¬ments – critical to long-term survival of DNA. We have analysed avian and mammalian specimens from several sites in Australia, New Zealand and Patagonia to resolve taxonomic and ecological issues.