Historical DNA (hDNA), obtained from museum and herbarium specimens, has yielded
spectacular new insights into the history of organisms. This includes documenting historical …

▪ Abstract About 20 years ago, DNA sequences were separately described from the quagga
(a type of zebra) and an ancient Egyptian individual. What made these DNA sequences …

DNA degradation, low DNA concentrations and primer‐site mutations may result in the
incorrect assignment of microsatellite genotypes, potentially biasing population genetic …

Museums and other natural history collections (NHC) worldwide house millions of
specimens. With the advent of molecular genetic approaches these collections have …

Noninvasive genetic approaches continue to improve studies in molecular ecology,
conservation genetics and related disciplines such as forensics and epidemiology …

Background Poorly preserved biological tissues have become an important source of DNA
for a wide range of zoological studies. Measuring the quality of DNA obtained from these …

Natural history collections have long been used by morphologists, anatomists, and
taxonomists to probe the evolutionary process and describe biological diversity. These …

The retrieval of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from four Neandertal fossils from
Germany, Russia, and Croatia has demonstrated that these individuals carried closely …

In spite of past controversies, the field of ancient DNA is now a reliable research area due to
recent methodological improvements. A series of recent large-scale studies have revealed …

The physical survival of bone is integral to any kind of palaeopathological study. Not only
must the skeleton survive in the burial environment or tomb, it must retain sufficient strength …