Recovering ancient parasites from Andean herbivores: test of the Mini-FLOTAC technique in archaeological samples.

The optimization of techniques for recovering parasitic remains is key in paleoparasitology. The Mini-FLOTAC technique (MF) is based on passive flotation and is used for diagnosis of parasites and was never tested on ancient samples. Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of MF in paleoparasitology, aiming at improving the techniques for the recovery of parasitic remains in order to upgrade the interpretative potential of the paleoparasitological evidence.