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Spectroscopic Studies on Organic Matter from Triassic Reptile Bones, Upper Silesia, Poland

Fossil biomolecules from an endogenous source were previously identified in Cretaceous to Pleistocene fossilized bones, the evidence coming from molecular analyses. These findings, however, were called into question and an alternative hypothesis of the invasion of the bone by bacterial biofilm was p...

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Autores principales: Surmik, Dawid, Boczarowski, Andrzej, Balin, Katarzyna, Dulski, Mateusz, Szade, Jacek, Kremer, Barbara, Pawlicki, Roman
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4792425/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26977600
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0151143
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author Surmik, Dawid
Boczarowski, Andrzej
Balin, Katarzyna
Dulski, Mateusz
Szade, Jacek
Kremer, Barbara
Pawlicki, Roman
author_facet Surmik, Dawid
Boczarowski, Andrzej
Balin, Katarzyna
Dulski, Mateusz
Szade, Jacek
Kremer, Barbara
Pawlicki, Roman
author_sort Surmik, Dawid
collection PubMed
description Fossil biomolecules from an endogenous source were previously identified in Cretaceous to Pleistocene fossilized bones, the evidence coming from molecular analyses. These findings, however, were called into question and an alternative hypothesis of the invasion of the bone by bacterial biofilm was proposed. Herewith we report a new finding of morphologically preserved blood-vessel-like structures enclosing organic molecules preserved in iron-oxide-mineralized vessel walls from the cortical region of nothosaurid and tanystropheid (aquatic and terrestrial diapsid reptiles) bones. These findings are from the Early/Middle Triassic boundary (Upper Roetian/Lowermost Muschelkalk) strata of Upper Silesia, Poland. Multiple spectroscopic analyses (FTIR, ToF-SIMS, and XPS) of the extracted "blood vessels" showed the presence of organic compounds, including fragments of various amino acids such as hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine as well as amides, that may suggest the presence of collagen protein residues. Because these amino acids are absent from most proteins other than collagen, we infer that the proteinaceous molecules may originate from endogenous collagen. The preservation of molecular signals of proteins within the "blood vessels" was most likely made possible through the process of early diagenetic iron oxide mineralization. This discovery provides the oldest evidence of in situ preservation of complex organic molecules in vertebrate remains in a marine environment.
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spelling pubmed-47924252016-03-23 Spectroscopic Studies on Organic Matter from Triassic Reptile Bones, Upper Silesia, Poland Surmik, Dawid Boczarowski, Andrzej Balin, Katarzyna Dulski, Mateusz Szade, Jacek Kremer, Barbara Pawlicki, Roman PLoS One Research Article Fossil biomolecules from an endogenous source were previously identified in Cretaceous to Pleistocene fossilized bones, the evidence coming from molecular analyses. These findings, however, were called into question and an alternative hypothesis of the invasion of the bone by bacterial biofilm was proposed. Herewith we report a new finding of morphologically preserved blood-vessel-like structures enclosing organic molecules preserved in iron-oxide-mineralized vessel walls from the cortical region of nothosaurid and tanystropheid (aquatic and terrestrial diapsid reptiles) bones. These findings are from the Early/Middle Triassic boundary (Upper Roetian/Lowermost Muschelkalk) strata of Upper Silesia, Poland. Multiple spectroscopic analyses (FTIR, ToF-SIMS, and XPS) of the extracted "blood vessels" showed the presence of organic compounds, including fragments of various amino acids such as hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine as well as amides, that may suggest the presence of collagen protein residues. Because these amino acids are absent from most proteins other than collagen, we infer that the proteinaceous molecules may originate from endogenous collagen. The preservation of molecular signals of proteins within the "blood vessels" was most likely made possible through the process of early diagenetic iron oxide mineralization. This discovery provides the oldest evidence of in situ preservation of complex organic molecules in vertebrate remains in a marine environment. Public Library of Science 2016-03-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4792425/ /pubmed/26977600 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0151143 Text en © 2016 Surmik et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Surmik, Dawid
Boczarowski, Andrzej
Balin, Katarzyna
Dulski, Mateusz
Szade, Jacek
Kremer, Barbara
Pawlicki, Roman
Spectroscopic Studies on Organic Matter from Triassic Reptile Bones, Upper Silesia, Poland
title Spectroscopic Studies on Organic Matter from Triassic Reptile Bones, Upper Silesia, Poland
title_full Spectroscopic Studies on Organic Matter from Triassic Reptile Bones, Upper Silesia, Poland
title_fullStr Spectroscopic Studies on Organic Matter from Triassic Reptile Bones, Upper Silesia, Poland
title_full_unstemmed Spectroscopic Studies on Organic Matter from Triassic Reptile Bones, Upper Silesia, Poland
title_short Spectroscopic Studies on Organic Matter from Triassic Reptile Bones, Upper Silesia, Poland
title_sort spectroscopic studies on organic matter from triassic reptile bones, upper silesia, poland
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4792425/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26977600
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0151143
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