Absence of Ancient DNA in Sub-Fossil Insect Inclusions Preserved in ‘Anthropocene’ Colombian Copal

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073150
• Publication Date: 2013-09-11T17:13:34Z
• Authors: David Penney; Caroline Wadsworth; Graeme Fox; Sandra L. Kennedy; Richard F. Preziosi; Terence A. Brown
• Keywords: Ancient DNA

Insects preserved in copal, the sub-fossilized resin precursor of amber, have potential value molecular ecological studies recently-extinct species and extant that never been collected as living specimens. The objective work reported this paper was therefore to determine if ancient DNA is present insects copal. We prepared libraries from two stingless bees (Apidae: Meliponini: Trigonisca ameliae) 'Anthropocene' Colombian dated 'post-Bomb' 10,612±62 cal yr BP, respectively, obtained sequence reads using GS Junior 454 System. Read numbers were low, but significantly higher for extracts crushed compared with by a non-destructive method. younger specimen yielded up 535 nucleotides length, searches these sequences against nucleotide database revealed very few significant matches. None hits though one read 97 aligned non-contiguous segments mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene East Asia bumblebee Bombus hypocrita. most hit 452 470-nucleotide part genome root-nodulating bacterium Bradyrhizobium japonicum. other proteobacteria an actinomycete. Searches directed specifically at Apidae only gave short insignificant alignments. All older appeared be artefacts. unable obtain any convincing evidence preservation either copal inclusions we studied, conclude not type material. Our results raise further doubts about claims extraction fossil many millions years than