The discovery of traces of organic structures in fossils of prehistoric animals could be more common than previously thought.
This follows the identification of possible remains of soft tissue (cells and collagen) in eight different dinosaur fossils with an age of 75 million years.
His analysis by the chemical biologist and paleontologist Sergio Bertazzo -both Susannah Maidment, researchers from Imperial College London, appears highlighted in the journal Nature Communications published today.
Although he had already been a similar finding in the past, it was with a material remarkably preserved. Now it remains held under normal stresses paleontologist at the University of Chile, Alexander Vargas. In conducting the analysis, the researchers found some structures that could be red blood cells and other similar fibers collagen, a protein that is present in all connective tissues of bones and tendons.
For a long time It has been believed that the protein molecules decomposed in a short period and which are not kept for more than 4 billion years.
The researchers used advanced technology of mass photometry. The finding of this material in common fossils and no exceptional opens the door for the conservation of this type of material is the rule, not the exception, which opens the door to a new era of analysis of the biology of these animals and its relationship to other species.
However, Bertazzo urged caution to the findings and acknowledged that need further research to confirm “what we are seeing in the fragments of dinosaur.”
What has not been preserved is the DNA, which is more brittle and less durable.
The researchers also analyzed what would be erythrocytes or red blood cells, and found they are very similar to the emu an ostrich-like bird that lives in Australia, confirming the link between birds and dinosaurs.
Vargas explains that the fossilized material is a mixture of components. The fossil keeps its original molecules and also absorbs other organic components of the environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment