Aberdeen archaeologists lead international sampling trip to Chicago Field Museum

Aberdeen archaeologists lead international sampling trip to Chicago Field Museum

An international team of researchers, led by the Archaeology Department at Aberdeen have been carrying out research in one of the world’s premiere museums.

For the past week the team have been working in the zoological collections at the world famous Field Museum in Chicago, taking DNA samples and photographing the teeth of rats mice and shrews from around the world.

The research group comprising PhD students and postdoctoral research fellows from the universities of Aberdeen, Durham, Oxford and Cornell, have been photographing the tiny teeth and carefully removing tiny samples of dried brain tissue still present in the skulls of these small mammals as part of a research project to unravel the early prehistory of human dispersal and migration into the islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Species of rats, mice and even shrews have been deliberately or accidentally transported by humans during their early voyages and are today distributed far beyond their natural range. Since these animals are so closely linked with human settlements and activities, their genetic and morphological signatures can be tracked through space and time, to build up a detailed map of human migration and colonisation history from their origins to their final destinations.

To do this the team are using museum specimens collected in many locations around the world over the last 100 or so years, and comparing them with bones recovered from archaeological sites in the same regions

The Field Museum generously allowed the team to sample their precious materials on an unprecedented scale – over 400 specimens.

Professor Keith Dobney of the Archaeology Department at Aberdeen said: “These collections are a unique but sadly diminishing and under-used resource but they are incredibly important in our attempts to understand the natural world and the growing impact humans are having on it. We are very lucky and privileged to have been allowed access to such important material.” 

Search News

Browse by Month

2004

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov There are no items to show for November 2004
  12. Dec

2003

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec There are no items to show for December 2003

1999

  1. Jan There are no items to show for January 1999
  2. Feb There are no items to show for February 1999
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec

1998

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr There are no items to show for April 1998
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul There are no items to show for July 1998
  8. Aug There are no items to show for August 1998
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov There are no items to show for November 1998
  12. Dec