Sampling Historic Specimens (Hide, Teeth, and Bone Sampling)

Hide Samples

A small portion of hide (0.5-1.0 cm x 0.5-1.0 cm) can be cut from the specimen (Figure 1&2).
The tissue can be sampled from any portion of hide. We have successfully extracted DNA from hide samples from a number of specimens including the 1800s specimens supplied by the Adirondack, Harvard and Boston museums.

[Figure 1] Removal of a small portion of hide using a sterile scalpel blade.

[Figure 2] A 0.5–1.0cm sample of hide is adequate for DNA extraction.

Tooth Samples

A tooth can be removed from the skull to extract the DNA within the root. The tooth will be cut at the base just above the root (Figure 3&4) allowing the rest of the tooth to be reinserted into the skull for
any subsequent morphological measurements. We have successfully extracted teeth using this
method from 250 historic skulls from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

Bone Samples

Samples can be obtained by drilling into a non-obtrusive portion of the bone fragment with a minute drill bit and removing the bone powder for DNA extraction.

[Figure 5] Drilling of an elk antler using a 3mm drill bit to generate bone dust.

The largest bones will be targeted to prevent damaging smaller bone specimens. We have successfully applied
this extraction protocol on a number of historic moose
and elk antlers. In addition we have used this method
to sample bowhead and North Atlantic right whale
bones from the 1500s with minimal impact on the
actual specimen. (Figure 5)

Natural Resources DNA Profiling and Forensic Centre DNA Building, Trent University, 2140 East Bank Drive, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, K9J 7B8 Phone: (705) 748-1011 ext. 7126| Fax (705) 748-1132 Email: info@nrdpfc.ca