John Travis gives a conference summary (paywall) of the recent International Symposium on Biomolecular Archaeology. The focus is new technological approaches to studying archaeological sites, and several novel projects are described. I like this one:
RNA may be considered fragile, but the bone protein collagen is among the best survivors of the ravages of time. RNA can last hundreds of years, and DNA tens of thousands, but collagen apparently sometimes survives for millions of years in a bone. That's why Michael Buckley of Bournemouth University, while working in the laboratory of Matthew Collins of the University of York, both in the U.K., spearheaded a technique to use collagen fragments, or peptides, to identify the species of nondescript bits of bone. Called ZooArchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS), the method relies on subtle differences among species in the amino acid sequence, and thus mass, of collagen. For less than $10 a test, scientists may one day be able to take any bit of fossilized bone and identify the genus, or even species, it came from, says Buckley.
That's most relevant for sites where you only have tiny amounts of animal bone (like the New Guinea sites described yesterday).