Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) helps scientists identify who the bone fragments found at archaeological sites belonged to – Humans? Bears? Horses? – by analyzing the bone’s unique collagen fingerprint.
Oh and it uses a laser. Because science is awesome.
Illustration for Scientific American: Higham T, Douka K. Needle in the Haystack. Sci Am. 2018;319(6):44.
