Recovering ancient parasites from Andean herbivores: test of the Mini-FLOTAC technique in archaeological samples

Abstract

The optimization of techniques for recovering parasitic remains is key in paleoparasitology. The Mini-FLOTAC technique (MF) is based on passive flotation and is used for diagnosis of parasites and was never tested on ancient samples. Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of MF in paleoparasitology, aiming at improving the techniques for the recovery of parasitic remains in order to upgrade the interpretative potential of the paleoparasitological evidence. Three techniques were tested: MF, spontaneous sedimentation (SS), and centrifugation-sucrose flotation (CF) testing camelid and goat coprolites. Statistical tests were performed with the R software. Our result displayed that, in the case of SAC samples, MF recovered less number of parasitic species than SS, but obtained a greater number of positive samples for protozoa. For goat samples, MF recovered a higher number of positive samples and parasitic species than SS, added that it was the technique that recovered a greater number of parasite structures. Therefore, results vary according to the zoological origin of the samples and the parasitic species recorded. We suggest starting using MF on ancient samples as a complementary method to those traditionally used in paleoparasitology. It is important to highlight that MF was a simple and faster way. The incorporation of reliable quantitative techniques opens the door to a new way of analyzing archaeological remains, deepening the study of the parasite-host relationships and its evolution through time with an epidemiological approach. Although further studies are needed, our results suggest the complementarity of these techniques in future paleoparasitological studies.

Keywords: Coprolites; Flotation; Paleoparasitology; Sedimentation, Herbivores.