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Forensic point of origin testing is a key tool in identifying the provenance of a sample, whether it be for human remains, the food industry, or illegal wildlife trade. A variety of techniques – morphological, genetic and isotopic – have been developed to provide resolution on the origin of an individual or sample. Herein, we employed all three approaches to identify a reported case of food contamination. A consumer in New Jersey, USA reported finding a rodent in a beer can, which was bottled in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Texas, USA. Photographs of the organism as well as biological material (muscle and hair) were evaluated to determine the species, location and ultimate source of the contamination. The rodent removed from the can was surprisingly intact and was identified belonging to the family Cricetidae and subfamily Neotominae, and likely of the genus Peromyscus spp. Sequencing of the COIII mitochondrial gene confirmed a species identification of P. leucopus. The analysis of δ2H and δ18O and subsequent probability assignment showed little support that the sample did not originate from the bottling facility (PDFW = 0.02 ± 0.02) but very high support that the mouse originated from New Jersey (PNew Jersey = 0.98 ± 0.02). Together, these results provide clear and consistent results that the mouse did not enter the food system at the bottling facility. This complimentary approach of morphological and molecular identification as well as point-of-origin assignment using stable isotope analysis yielded a highly cost-effective and probabilistic approach to assign origin of species that can be used by future forensic scientists.

Stable isotope data have made pivotal contributions to nearly every discipline of the physical and natural sciences. As the generation and application of stable isotope data continues to grow exponentially, so does the need for a unifying data repository to improve accessibility and promote collaborative engagement. This paper provides an overview of the design, development, and implementation of IsoBank (www.isobank.org), a community-driven initiative to create an open-access repository for stable isotope data implemented online in 2021. A central goal of IsoBank is to provide a web-accessible database supporting interdisciplinary stable isotope research and educational opportunities. To achieve this goal, we convened a multi-disciplinary group of over 40 analytical experts, stable isotope researchers, database managers, and web developers to collaboratively design the database. This paper outlines the main features of IsoBank and provides a focused description of the core metadata structure. We present plans for future database and tool development and engagement across the scientific community. These efforts will help facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration among the many users of stable isotopic data while also offering useful data resources and standardization of metadata reporting across eco-geoinformatics landscapes.