title: Case study: ancient sloth DNA recovered from hairs preserved in paleofeces.
abstract: Ancient hair, which has proved to be an excellent source of well-preserved ancient DNA, is often preserved in paleofeces. Here, we separate and wash hair shafts preserved in a paleofecal specimen believed to be from a Darwin's ground sloth, Mylodon darwinii. After extracting DNA from the recovered and cleaned hair using a protocol optimized for DNA extraction from keratinous substrates, we amplify 12S and 16S rDNA sequences from the DNA extract. As expected, the recovered sequences most closely match previously published sequences of M. darwinii. Our results demonstrate that hair preserved in paleofeces, even from temperate cave environments, is an effective source of ancient DNA.
authors.affiliation: McMaster Ancient DNA Center, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, Canada, L8S 4L9. aac19@psu.edu
authors.forename: Andrew A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Clack
authors.forename: Ross D E
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Macphee
authors.forename: Hendrik N
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Poinar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005243:Feces / Q000737:chemistry*; D005580:Fossils; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012896:Sloths / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004247:DNA