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Major research projects which have been completed in the CAMAS facility:

Researchers discussing experiment
  • (2014) Dr. Sunday Eiselt, Southern Methodist University. LA-ICP-MS provenancing micaceous schists in Sedentary Period (A.D. 1000-1070) Hohokam ceramics, Gila River Indian Community.
  • (2014) Dr. Richard Holdaway, Paleocol Research, NZ. LA-ICP-MS trace element profiling of subfossil moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) bone to determine whether evidence of migratory behavior could be discerned in samples recovered from deposits immediately preceding human colonization.
  • (2014) Ph.D. candidate Kristen Carlson, University of Oklahoma. LA-ICP-MS analysis of early Holocene bison enamel to infer possible migratory pathways and source populations at midwestern kill sites.
  • (2014) M.S. candidate Matt DeCarlo, Cal State Bakersfield. Optical and SEM-based imaging of surface dental resin peels for identification and quantification of butchering marks from taphonomic alteration, Owl Cave (Wasden Site) mammoth specimens.
  • (2013) M.S. candidate Meaghan Jones, Boston University. SEM-EDS and LA-ICP-MS analysis to investigate trace element incorporation in dental enamel to forensically ‘source’ historical undocumented skeletal material from Columbia, in order to determine whether biogeochemical elemental signatures could assign individuals to regions of residence.
  • (2013) Ph.D. student Amy Commendador, Idaho Museum of Natural History. Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). Using archaeofaunal stable isotopes to create a dietary food web of the island, she demonstrated that terrestrial animal sources (tentatively identified as the Polynesian Rat, Rattus exulans) make up over 80% of the total dietary protein of the prehistoric Easter Islanders.
  • (2012) Ph.D. candidate Alex Morrison, University of Hawaii. LA-ICP-MS to document sub-source variation in obsidian deposits on Easter Island, and correlated this source variation with the distribution of surface artifacts across the island.
  • (2012 & 2014) Doctoral candidate Monica Tromp, University of Auckland, NZ. Developed optimized SEM-EDS auto-identification routines for quantifying large numbers of dental calculus-embedded phytoliths in eastern (Rapa Nui) and western (Vanuatu) Pacific archaeological sites.