Lipid and fatty acid datasets are commonly used to assess the nutritional composition of organisms, trophic ecology, and ecosystem dynamics. Lipids and their fatty acid constituents are essential nutrients to all forms of life because they contribute to biological processes such as energy flow and metabolism. Assessment of total lipids in tissues of organisms provides information on energy allocation and life‐history strategie...

Subsamples of charcoal from a number of different excavation contexts at the early modern human ( Homo sapiens ) site of Niah Great Cave (Malaysia) were accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14 C dated. Samples were prepared using one of a number of different methods: untreated (control); acid–base–acid (ABA); and acid–base–wet oxidation with stepped combustion (ABOX‐SC) after Bird et al . ( 1999 ). The results show that for mat...