Phenolic metabolites from 5,000-year-old coprolites of Myotragus balearicus, an extinct insular bovid

Abstract To date, the identification of polyphenols in the archaeological and palaeontological record has been limited. Here, we demonstrate for the first time the presence of flavonoid and phenolic metabolites from non-mineralised coprolites belonging to a non-human mammal species. Myotragus balearicus is the last species of a bovid lineage that became extinct during the Holocene in the western Mediterranean basin. In this work, we characterize the phenolic metabolites of M. balearicus coprolites for the first time. The chemical analysis of coprolites revealed the presence of flavonoids, such as flavones and flavonols. Moreover, the detection of conjugates of hydroxyphenylvaleric, hydroxyp…