Discover the oldest dinosaur protein

A recent study has found that fossil feet of platypus dinosaurs living 80 million years ago have the oldest proteins stored in soft tissues, including blood vessels, connective tissues and probably the proteins of red blood cells.

The author of the study is also the group that announced the controversial discovery in 2007, in which they found similar soft tissues in the bones of Tyrannosaurus rex that lived 68 million years ago.

'This is not a miraculous self-help miracle,' said John Asara of Harvard Pharmacy School, the head of protein chain research.

Dinosaurs are well kept

These proteins, recovered from a femur of the hadrosaur, are encased in sandstone, which seems to prevent the decay of tissues, Asara said.

Preliminary microscopic analyzes have helped detect structures like blood vessels, cells and collagen, he noted.

These initial observations are reaffirmed with the application of antibodies to tissues that are still considered to react to proteins. Test results show the presence of collagen and other proteins, including hemoglobin (Hb), a protein in red blood cells.

Blood cells of dinosaurs?

The presence of hemoglobin is still only speculative, and was not included in the new study appearing today in Science.

Some scientists believe that hemoglobin is just an impurity.

"If it is not an impurity, then this will be a more shocking news than today, including a published discovery of vascular circuits and other connective tissues, ' Pavel. Pevzner, a computer biologist at the University of California in San Diego, who doesn't care about the study, said.

Discovered from the platypus dinosaur fossils that lived 80 million years ago, the dinosaur red blood cells are surrounded by white connective tissue - citing a study last April.(Photo: Mary H. Schweitzer)

A finding of hemoglobin in dinosaurs will open the door to discover many other proteins in dinosaurs, including DNA proteins, he said, with concern about a resurgence as described in the set. Jurassic Park movie.

Asara, co-author of the study, said his team has not been able to say much about hemoglobin so far, with the current limited technology, it is difficult to confirm anything.

'However, we do not believe that it is an impurity.'

Add to the family tree

Asara analyzed tissue samples with the help of a spectrophotometer, which could clarify the chemical structure by showing different chemical elements in each sample.

He discovered 8 collagen proteins, and a colleague compared them to samples in today's animals as well as the fossils of mastodons and T. rex dinosaurs.
The result is the platypus dinosaur, Brachylophosaurus canadensis, and the same branch of the tree as T. rex. And, as expected, both platypus and T. rex are more closely related to chickens and ostriches than lizards and crocodiles.

New respect?

This new study convinced the controversy surrounding the study of soft tissue group on T. rex in 2007 - for example, critics previously said that this tissue could be introduced into T. rex species due to errors in researchers' analysis.

Pevzner of the University of California in San Diego, who criticized the technology used in T. rex protein analysis in the previous study, said the new study was being conducted in the right direction, with tight control. more closely, avoiding impurities and other obstacles in identifying a material like dinosaur protein.