Preface viiAcknowledgements ix1 Biominerals and the Fossil Record 1Why Study Old Biominerals? 1What are Biominerals? 4How and Why are Biominerals Formed? 5'Biomineralization Toolkit': From Proteins to Proteomes 8Fossil Biominerals, Fossil Proteomes 12References 162 Mechanisms of Degradation and Survival 23Introduction 23Hydrolysis 27Racemization 31Decomposition and Other Diagenesis-induced Modifications 35References 383 Proteins in Fossil Biominerals 43Bone and Other Collagen-based Hard Tissues 43Tooth 45Eggshell 47Mollusc Shell 51Other Substrates 57References 634 Chiral Amino Acids: Geochronology and Other Applications 71Dating the Quaternary (Pleistocene and Holocene) 71Principles of AAR Dating 76Measuring D/L Values 78Factors Affecting D/L Values 82Aminostratigraphy 87Aminochronology 92Palaeothermometry 97Testing the Suitability of Biominerals for Geochemical Analyses 98Taxonomic Identification 99Appendix: Practical Tips on How to Plan and Conduct an AAR Study 100References 1045 Ancient Protein Sequences 113Ancient Protein Analysis by Mass Spectrometry 113Ancient Proteins: Past and Future 120References 122Index 127
Beatrice Demarchi, PhD, is a biomolecular archaeologist in the Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.