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Nature article....
Dinosaur protein sequenced
Lucky find shows up record-breaking fossil.
Palaeontologists have sequenced some protein from a 68-million-year-old fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex bone.
The protein — a key component of bone and connective tissue called collagen — blasts the record for the oldest protein ever sequenced. Before this, the oldest sequenced protein (also collagen) came from a mammoth fossil that was 100,000-300,000 years old. So the new find, reported this week in the journal Science1, is quite a surprise.
Scientists hope that if similar molecular data can be recovered from other fossils, the information can be used to firm up the dinosaur family tree and to better understand their relationship with living animals.
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This particular fossil, which has been shown to contain soft tissues before (see 'Flexible fossil shows tyrannosaur's softer side'), was unusually well preserved.
It was found within 1,000 cubic metres of sandstone in the badlands of eastern Montana. The rock is thought to have kept away damaging groundwater and bacteria. "As the tissues begin to liquefy, the enzymes of decay and degradation are drained away in the sand, whereas in the mud it just sits and stews in its own juices," says Jack Horner, a palaeontologist at the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University in Bozeman and an author on the study.
>
Lucky find shows up record-breaking fossil.
Palaeontologists have sequenced some protein from a 68-million-year-old fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex bone.
The protein — a key component of bone and connective tissue called collagen — blasts the record for the oldest protein ever sequenced. Before this, the oldest sequenced protein (also collagen) came from a mammoth fossil that was 100,000-300,000 years old. So the new find, reported this week in the journal Science1, is quite a surprise.
Scientists hope that if similar molecular data can be recovered from other fossils, the information can be used to firm up the dinosaur family tree and to better understand their relationship with living animals.
>
This particular fossil, which has been shown to contain soft tissues before (see 'Flexible fossil shows tyrannosaur's softer side'), was unusually well preserved.
It was found within 1,000 cubic metres of sandstone in the badlands of eastern Montana. The rock is thought to have kept away damaging groundwater and bacteria. "As the tissues begin to liquefy, the enzymes of decay and degradation are drained away in the sand, whereas in the mud it just sits and stews in its own juices," says Jack Horner, a palaeontologist at the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University in Bozeman and an author on the study.
>
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