Figure 2: Characterizing blackened Genyornis eggshell. | Nature Communications

Figure 2: Characterizing blackened Genyornis eggshell.

From: Human predation contributed to the extinction of the Australian megafaunal bird Genyornis newtoni ∼47 ka

Figure 2

(a) Excavated variably burnt and unusually broken Genyornis eggshell from the Wood Point site, Port Broughton, Spencer Gulf, SA (PB, Fig. 1). (b) Genyornis eggshell fragment from region W (Fig. 1), blackened only at one end, with locations of samples for amino-acid analysis (c). (c) Concentrations of the stable amino acids glutamic acid (Glu), valine (Val) and leucine (Leu) are reduced in direct proportion to the degree of visual blackening, with samples 3–6 exhibiting only slightly lower concentrations than in unheated fragments of the same egg; ±1σ uncertainties (7%) based on duplicate analyses. Unheated fragments of the same egg exhibit 10% inter-eggshell variability for the same amino acids (6 fragments analysed). Less stable amino acids show similar patterns. Transects through other similarly blackened as well as fully blackened fragments are given in Supplementary Figs 1 and 2.

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