ScienceDaily (May 1, 2009) — Ancient protein dating back 80 million years to the Cretaceous geologic period has been preserved in bone fragments and soft tissues of a hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur, according to a study in the May 1 issue of Science.
Led by scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and North Carolina State University (NCSU), the research support earlier results from analyses suggesting that collagen protein survived in the bones of a well preserved Tyrannosaurus rex, and offer robust new evidence supporting previous conclusions that birds and dinosaurs are evolutionarily related.
Samples of ancient protein dating back 80 million years preserved in bone fragments and soft tissues of a hadrosaur. (Credit: Courtesy of NCSU)
In April 2007 John Asara, PhD, Director of the Mass Spectrometry Core at BIDMC, together with NCSU paleontologist Mary Schweitzer, PhD, published two papers in Science describing their discovery that collagen extracted from bone fragments of a 68-million-year-old T. rex closely matched the amino acid sequences of modern day chickens. Not surprisingly, the widely publicized findings created a great deal of controversy.
"With this new paper, we hoped to show that our T. rex discovery was not a unique occurrence," notes Asara, who is also an Instructor in Pathology at Harvard Medical School. "This is the second dinosaur species we've examined and helps verify that our first discovery was not just a one-hit wonder. Our current study was the collaborative effort of a number of independent laboratories, whose findings collectively add up to a robust conclusion."
Mais do texto em inglês aqui.
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Science 1 May 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5927, pp. 626 - 631
DOI: 10.1126/science.1165069
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REPORTS
Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the Campanian Hadrosaur B. canadensis
Mary H. Schweitzer,1,2,* Wenxia Zheng,1 Chris L. Organ,3 Recep Avci,4 Zhiyong Suo,4 Lisa M. Freimark,5 Valerie S. Lebleu,6,7 Michael B. Duncan,6,7 Matthew G. Vander Heiden,8 John M. Neveu,9 William S. Lane,9 John S. Cottrell,10 John R. Horner,11 Lewis C. Cantley,5,12 Raghu Kalluri,6,7,13 John M. Asara5,14,*
Molecular preservation in non-avian dinosaurs is controversial. We present multiple lines of evidence that endogenous proteinaceous material is preserved in bone fragments and soft tissues from an 80-million-year-old Campanian hadrosaur, Brachylophosaurus canadensis [Museum of the Rockies (MOR) 2598]. Microstructural and immunological data are consistent with preservation of multiple bone matrix and vessel proteins, and phylogenetic analyses of Brachylophosaurus collagen sequenced by mass spectrometry robustly support the bird-dinosaur clade, consistent with an endogenous source for these collagen peptides. These data complement earlier results from Tyrannosaurus rex (MOR 1125) and confirm that molecular preservation in Cretaceous dinosaurs is not a unique event.
1 North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
2 North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC 27601, USA.
3 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
4 Imaging and Chemical Analysis Laboratory, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.
5 Division of Signal Transduction, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
6 Division of Matrix Biology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
7 Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
8 Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
9 Faculty of Arts and Sciences Center for Systems Biology, Harvard Univeristy, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
10 Matrix Science Ltd., 64 Baker Street, London, W1U 7GB, UK.
11 Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.
12 Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
13 Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
14 Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: schweitzer@ncsu.edu (M.H.S.); jasara@bidmc.harvard.edu (J.M.A.)
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NOTA IMPERTINENTE DO BLOGGER:
Estas pesquisas da Dra. Mary H. Schweitzer já está incomodando a Nomenklatura científica, pois o Konsenso akadêmico atual (procure por sua carteira epistêmica, pois você está sendo tungado) diz o contrário.
Já pensou se as pesquisas deste grupo forem aceitas? Nada podemos contra as evidências, a não ser a favor das evidências, e segui-las aonde elas forem dar (Bacon). Catatau, mano, não vai restar pedra sobre pedra sobre algumas posições atuais tidas como científicas...
Dê uma olhada no seu quintal, é bem provável que você ache um dino em pleno século 21.
Fui, nem sei por que, pensando que o Jurassic Park não foi tão ficção científica como imaginamos.
