Amélie Vialet

Suggested guidelines for invasive sampling of hominid remains

The last few years have witnessed remarkable technical developments in paleoanthropology. On the one hand, accurate imaging techniques have limited the need to access actual specimens. On the other hand, direct dating, isotopic studies, and the study of ancient DNA, proteins, and microstructures have experienced great technical improvements but still require a degree of invasive sampling. The power of these invasive approaches for answering important questions in evolutionary anthropology brings forward the question of how to balance preservation of fossil hominid remains for the future against the application of current scientific analyses. In order to address these issues, a workshop was hosted by the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig on April 26– 27, 2007 where the issues that emanate from the need for sampling of hominid remains versus the need for preservation of specimens for the future were discussed. At the end of the meeting, the participants produced a set of recommendations that might be useful to museums and other institutions as well as scientists that have to make decisions on requests for invasive sampling of hominid remains.