Sampling protocol minimizes contamination in historical whale bone samples for DNA analysis.
This protocol describes how to collect samples from whale bones. This protocol is most often used for historical (ancient) samples of bone and has been optimized for downstream ancient DNA analyses. The most important issue with genetic analysis of historical samples is contamination. Therefore, to minimize the risk of this, we throw away most of the materials between sampling events (gloves, paper towels, etc.), and wash the re-usable materials (drill bits) in bleach between samples.
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Timothy R. Frasier (2025) studied this question.
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