Age is just a number: No impacts of scat ageing on single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping using a target capture approach

Recent advances in DNA sequencing and genotyping technologies are rapidly building our capacity to address ecological, evolutionary, and conservation questions for wildlife. However, wildlife genetic research increasingly relies on samples containing low quantities and quality of DNA, such as non‐invasive, archival, and environmental DNA. These samples present unique methodological challenges; for samples collected in the wild, it is important to understand the impact of environmental exposure time or sample ‘age’ on DNA quality and downstream genetic analyses. Here, we aged koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) scats (from five wild adult individuals temporarily housed while in veterinary care) under natural conditions and quantified DNA degradation. We assessed the effect of age (0, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 days) on genetic data quality by measuring the proportion of missing single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data using DArTCap, a targeted genotyping methodology hypothesised to tolerate degraded..., Fresh scats were collected from five temporarily housed wild adult koalas (two females, three males) that were generally in good health from areas around Southeast Queensland. Scats were collected from the ground of each individual koala's enclosure in the morning; all enclosures had been cleaned the night before. Six pellets were collected from each individual. 
One scat from each koala was frozen immediately (−20°C). Based on the time at which koala cages were cleaned, these scats were less than 12 h old (named 0D in results). To simulate the effect of natural environmental degradation processes on scats over time (scat age), the remaining five scats from each koala were placed on individual toothpicks embedded into five Styrofoam boards. To simulate natural tree and ground cover conditions, Styrofoam boards with scats were then placed within a mesh enclosure and located near the base of a tree in a remnant forest patch. 
Scats were sampled for DNA extraction at six time poi..., # Data from: Age is just a number: No impacts of scat ageing on single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping using a target capture approach

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.n5tb2rc7h](10.5061/dryad.n5tb2rc7h)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset contains the data required to replicate analyses in Levengood et al. (2025) \"Age Is Just a Number: No Impacts of Scat Ageing on Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Genotyping Using a Target Capture Approach\", testing the impacts of scat age on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping using a target capture approach (DArTCap). The data consist of SNP data from 5 koalas (2 females, 3 males) from Southeast Queensland across 6 time points (0, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 days).

### Files and variables

#### File: Levengood_etal_Raw_data.xlsx

This file contains SNP data using DArTCap genotyping technology

File Format: SNP 1 Row Mapping Format: \"0\" = Reference allele homozygote, \"1\" = SNP allele homozygote, \"2\"= heterozygote, and \"-\" = do...,