Near infrared spectroscopy, the skeleton key for bone identification

The application of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for the discrimination of bone materials—either pulverised (bone meal) or as whole (bone fragments), in the study of archaeological materials with a primary focus on the conservation of delicate materials and as a forensic tool in art preservation—has been evaluated in a number of studies.4–11 More recently, the technique has been applied to a wide range of palaeontological studies, which has opened up an exciting opportunity for palaeontologists to employ non-destructive analytical techniques combined with chemometrics.4–11 This study aims to evaluate the capability of a portable NIR instrument to classify and identify the origin of skull bones from a number of different animal species (mammalian, avian and reptile).