Archaeological Proteomics Lab

Still time to submit an abstract for our free online workshop as part of COEXIST🧪🦣🏺

🚨ONLINE WORKSHOP🚨
We will be hosting a free online workshop “Maximising Data from Palaeolithic Bone" as part of the the COEXIST project on 10th March 2026. Please submit abstract by 23rd January 2026. Further information in the flyer. See you there!

AT ICAZ AGPM (Copenhagen) @wagneranna.bsky.social will give a talk contrasting her current #ZooMS results from Germany and Romania, while @geoffreymsmith.bsky.social will present his #ZooMS results from the British Middle Pleistocene site of Victoria Cave. @icaz-news.bsky.social

@eshesociety.bsky.social (Paris) both COEXIST PhD students will be presenting posters on faunal assemblages in Central and Southeast Europe, @frankietait.bsky.social on refining chronologies, and @wagneranna.bsky.social on rethinking subsistence integrating #Zooarchaeology and #ZooMS.🧪🦣🏺

In our EAA session, we will give 3 talks including an overview of our project aims and progress, and two case studies presenting our #ZooMS data from Crvena Stijena (Montenegro) and Cioarei Borosteni (Romania).

@archaeologyeaa.bsky.social (online), we are organising an entire session on Neanderthal-Homo Sapiens subsistence differences 60,000 to 40,000 years ago in Central and Southeast Europe

At @isbarchaeology.bsky.social (Turin), @frankietait.bsky.social will be presenting our ZooMS identifications and new C14 dates from Middle Palaeolithic layers in the cave site of Cioarei Borosteni (Romania) @isba11.bsky.social

We are approaching conference season! We are currently preparing 9 presentations for 4 conferences, and look forward to sharing some of our first COEXIST project results, and more! #archsci #Palaeoproteomics #ZooMS #Zooarchaeology 🧪🦣

Large-scale processing of within-bone nutrients by Neanderthals, 125,000 years ago Neanderthals intensively processed a minimum of 172 large mammals for grease and marrow fat, 125,000 years ago.

New paper in #ScienceAdvances led by @paleomonrepos.bsky.social and @unileiden.bsky.social on #Neanderthal adaptation 125ka years ago at Neumark-Nord 2, Germany. Our study shows large-scale grease rendering thousands of years earlier than previously thought: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🦣🧪🏺

Spotting her first MALDI plate! Thanks to @archaeoprotein.bsky.social for offering this wonderful training opportunity to @sarahbarakat.bsky.social and helping us further develop our ZooMS capacity in Aberdeen @uoa-archaeology.bsky.social - and for running our first PALaEoScot samples with us!

This interactive 1.5 hour webinar allows students and researchers from around the world to ask questions from our panel of #ZooMS and #Zooarchaeology experts: @geoffreymsmith.bsky.social, Camilla Speller, @abigaildesmond.bsky.social, Emmanuel Discamps, @mcodlin.bsky.social and Naihui Wang.

We are hosting a free online ‘Ask Us Anything’ event as part of the Integrating ZooMS and Zooarchaeology workshop series. For more info and to submit questions: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

📅 Date: June 30, 2025
🕒 Time: 15:00 CET
📍 Location: Online (link: univ-tlse2.zoom.us/j/9775805212...)

A male Denisovan mandible from Pleistocene Taiwan Denisovans are an extinct hominin group defined by ancient genomes of Middle to Late Pleistocene fossils from southern Siberia. Although genomic evidence suggests their widespread distribution through...

Our paper on the #palaeoproteomic identification of a male Denisovan mandible from Taiwan is out in @science.org !
doi.org/10.1126/scie...

ICAZ AGPM 2025 Exploring the Past, Informing the Future: Two Decades of Interdisciplinary Approaches in Archaeozoology

The next ICAZ-AGPM meeting (Archaeozoology, Genetics, Proteomics and Morphometrics) will take place 14-17 October 2025 in Copenhagen, Denmark 🐘🐐🦈🦜

Abstract are due 25 April!
More info: sites.google.com/palaeome.org...

Simplified workflow for the collagen extraction procedures and mass spectrometry techniques (MALDI-TOF and MALDI-FTICR) applied to a sample of indeterminate bone fragments from Le Piage, France. This figure illustrates the three collagen extraction protocols (AmBic, TFA and HCl) and the two mass spectrometry approaches (MALDI-TOF and MALDI-FTICR) used in the analysis. The lower left and right panels show Peptide Mass Fingerprinting (PMF) of peptide P1 (ɑ1 508, m/z 1105) for a single sample (PI-134-ICR) analysed with both mass spectrometers. The isotopic distributions are markedly different in these panels due to the separation by MALDI-FTICR of the two components of the first isotope. The spectrum shows a 13C and deamidated peptide peaks separated by 0.019 m/z.

🧵 Thread: Comparing mass analyzers for ZooMS on poorly preserved collagen 1/5
Raymond et al. @palaeocdf.bsky.social @archaeoprotein.bsky.social test MALDI-TOF vs MALDI-FTICR for ZooMS analysis on Palaeolithic bone fragments (37-34 ka BP).
Paper: doi.org/10.1002/rcm....
#ZooMS

The #palaeoproteomics #ZooMS starter pack has been updated to include, amongst others
@archaeoprotein.bsky.social and @drsambrown.bsky.social

The @eaapam.bsky.social deadline has been extended until 10th February. Still time to submit to our session on #Zooarchaeology #ZooMS and subsistence in central and SE Europe. 🦣🧪🏺

Mystery woman’s DNA reveals close family ties between Europe’s earliest people Pair of studies shines light on how modern humans and Neanderthals settled the continent together

New findings pin down when the Zlatý kůň woman lived to about 45,000 years ago and shed light on the remarkably mobile lifestyle of the earliest groups of modern humans to enter Europe. scim.ag/3C0ZVbp

4/5 Key challenge: We need "mediators" - scholars who understand both molecular science AND humanities. Current education systems need updating to bridge this gap. The future demands experts who can speak both languages! 🔬📚

Australopithecus at Sterkfontein did not consume substantial mammalian meat Incorporation of animal-based foods into early hominin diets has been hypothesized to be a major catalyst of many important evolutionary events, including brain expansion. However, direct evidence of ...

A fascinating study with direct N isotope data from Australopith fossils from Sterkfonteinat 3.5mya. Amazing results with great figures and visuals: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Great 🧪🦣🏺

For those of you troubled by the JHE resignations, PaleoAnthropology provides a free #openaccess alternative, one of the reasons we published our #ZooMS Special Issue there.

Journal editors’ mass resignation marks ‘sad day for paleoanthropology’ Exodus from the Journal of Human Evolution leaves a flagship journal in crisis

Science reporting on the mass resignation of the editorial board of the Journal of Human Evolution, highlighting some of the problems with commercial scientific publishing.
OA PaleoAnthropology journal (www.paleoanthropology.org) highlighted among JHE's successors
#openaccess #humanevolution

Follow us here to stay up to date with the latest news from our new Archaeological Proteomics Lab at the University of Reading. We will keep you updated with news from our various projects and our current publications
#palaeoproteomics #zooarchaeology #ZooMS 🦣🧪🏺