Amphibians are well known as being one of the main groups of animals today most threatened by environmental changes but they are also some of the least well understood of all terrestrial vertebrates. This gap in knowledge is much greater as we look further back into the relatively recent past, despite representing an invaluable resources in archaeological and palaeontological assemblages that are more indicative of palaeoclimate conditions than most other vertebrate taxa. This in part stems from their remains being typically much less studied, partly due to the less common forms of expertise required for identifications based on skeletal morphology – the most frequently observed tissue that remains in ancient assemblages. Here we apply a method of biomolecular species identification by collagen peptide mass fingerprinting to the British Late Pleistocene assemblage of Pin Hole Cave (Creswell Crags, UK) as well as a range of relevant extant taxa for comparison. Our results demonstrate the ability to separate at the species level with all modern taxa investigated, allowing for the identification of these archaeological remains to the amphibian taxa known to exist in Late Pleistocene Britain. Analyses of the Pin Hole assemblage found a dominance of the two species previously known from the site (common frogs and toads: Rana temporaria and Bufo bufo, respectively) and also a small number of the rarer natterjack toad (Epidalea calamita) not previously identified in the Creswell Crags region but known from other sites in the UK; additionally, one specimen appeared to yield the fingerprint of the moor frog (R. arvalis), now extinct in the UK. As such, collagen fingerprinting is here shown to widen the known palaeobiodiversity of taxa, and highlights the further potential to enhance our understanding of climate change in the past.

中文翻译：

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胶原指纹图谱用于鉴定考古两栖动物遗骸

两栖动物被公认为是当今受到环境变化威胁最大的主要动物之一，但在所有陆生脊椎动物中，两栖动物也是最不为人所知的动物。尽管我们代表的考古和古生物学组合中的宝贵资源比大多数其他脊椎动物类群更能指示古气候条件，但随着我们进一步回顾相对较近的过去，知识上的鸿沟要大得多。这部分是由于对它们的遗骸的研究较少，部分原因是基于骨骼形态的鉴定所需要的专门知识的通用性较差，而骨骼形态是古代组合中最常见的组织。在这里，我们将通过胶原蛋白肽质谱指纹图谱鉴定生物分子种类的方法应用于针孔洞的英国晚更新世组合（英国克雷斯韦尔克拉格斯）以及一系列相关的现存生物群进行比较。我们的研究结果表明，可以与所有现代分类单元一起在物种水平上进行分离，从而可以识别出晚更新世英国已知的两栖类分类考古遗迹。针孔组合的分析发现了以前从该地点已知的两个物种（常见的青蛙和蟾蜍）的优势：可以识别出晚更新世英国已知的两栖类群的这些考古遗迹。针孔组合的分析发现了以前从该地点已知的两个物种（常见的青蛙和蟾蜍）的优势：可以识别出晚更新世英国已知的两栖类群的这些考古遗迹。针孔组合的分析发现了以前从该地点已知的两个物种（常见的青蛙和蟾蜍）的优势：分别是林蛙（Rana temporaria）和蟾蜍（Bufo bufo），以及少数在Creswell Crags地区以前未发现但在英国其他地方已知的稀有n鱼蟾蜍（Epidalea calamita）；此外，似乎有一个标本可以显示出现在已在英国灭绝的系泊蛙（R. arvalis）的指纹。因此，此处显示的胶原蛋白指纹图谱拓宽了已知的分类生物古生物多样性，并突显了增强我们过去对气候变化认识的进一步潜力。