distinguishing bison bison from bison antiquus in archaeological and paleo-biological contexts through dna fingerprinting

the thunder bay chapter of the ontario archaeology society is proud to present dr. amy junnila. 

"distinguishing bison bison from bison antiquus in archaeological and paleo-biological contexts: ancient dna analysis of mitochondrial 12s rrna"

friday, dec. 13

7 p.m.

bb 2002

distinguishing between bison bison and bison antiquus in archaeological and paleo-biological contexts is difficult. this study addresses this issue using ancient dna analysis of a small, conserved portion of their mitochondrial 12s ribosomal rna gene. the first objective of this study was to extract dna from two ancient bison antiquus specimens and a 400-year-old bison bison specimen. the second was to sequence the genetic region of interest and identify species specific motifs. if distinctions found here are verified by future analysis, then archaeologists may have a powerful tool to aid bison speciation using hard tissue remains. examination of populations of suitable specimens will be required to determine the extent of “within species” variation in the 12s region of bison mtdna, both extinct and extant. this dna fingerprinting technique is likely applicable to a diverse array of animals for identification purposes.

as always, meetings are free to attend. hope to see many of you there!