EXPERIMENTS ON THE DETERMINATION OF GENDER FROM COPROLITES BY DNA ANALYSIS

This paper reports the analysis of DNA from four coprolites from two s ites in western North America. This pilot study was conducted to deter mine the feasibility of the recovery of human DNA from coprolites and whether the determination of gender of the people from whom the coprol ites originated could be accomplished. Such information could be coupl ed with dietary data to explore gender-based differences in diet. Of t he four specimens, the originators of two were identified as female, o ne as male, with the last being indeterminate. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited