Zooarchaeology is a specialized branch of archaeology that examines animal remains from archaeological sites.
It involves collecting and identifying faunal remains to answer questions about the people who occupied these sites. It differs from zoology in that the focus is on animals as they relate to past human activity or past human environments. The particular animal taxa and the types of skeletal elements in an archaeological assemblage can lend insight into past animal use, and provide clues about the local landscape and climate at the time of occupation.
The animal skeleton comparative collection consists of over 530 different species represented by more than 1800 specimens of mollusc, fish, reptile, bird and mammal from California, Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming, Hawai'i, Alaska, Mexico, Canada, Greenland, China and Britain.