A Basic Mathematical Simulation of the Chemical Degradation of Ancient Collagen

Collins, Matthew J.; Riley, Michael S.; Child, Angela M.; Turner‐Walker, Gordon

doi:10.1006/jasc.1995.0019

Cited by 197 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Collins et al (1995) suggested that the collagen in bone is protected by the physical exclusion of microbial extracellular enzymes (see also Mayer 1994;Nielsen-Marsh et al 2000). Despite the fact that the precise relationship between bone collagen and mineral is still debated (Glimcher 1990;Lee and Glimcher 1991;Traub et al 1992;Landis 1996;Prostak and Lees 1996;Fratzl et al 1996;Weiner and Wagner 1998;Weiner et al 1999), the association does appear to be sufficiently intimate to preclude penetration by extracellular enzymes (see Lees 1989).…”

Section: The Organization Of Bonementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bone fragility in later life is potentially compounded by an increase in porosity (Martin 1991;Thomas et al 2000) and a decline in collagen mineralization (Bailey et al 1999), but these relationships are not clear-cut (Wang et al 1998(Wang et al , 2000Zioupos et al 1999). Damage to the collagen will lead to a change in organization (Miles et al 2000) and ultimately to gelatinization and loss of collagen (Collins et al 1995). The processes leave behind a mineral ghost containing very small (< 30 nm diameter), interconnected pores (Nielsen-Marsh and Hedges 1999).…”

Section: Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The survival of organic matter in bone: a review

et al. 2002

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Section: The Organization Of Bonementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The survival of organic matter in bone: a review

et al. 2002

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“…Similar to most other proteins, collagen is composed mostly of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and a minor content of sulphur, and its initial decay during early diagenesis is of great importance for the final preservation and chemical composition of the bone Pfretzschner, 1998Pfretzschner, , 2000Schweitzer et al, 2005Schweitzer et al, , 2007. Generally, microbial degradation of collagen accelerates destruction (Collins et al, 1995) and therefore hinders fossil preservation of bone. However, microbial activity depends on a number of chemical parameters -including temperature, pH and the availability of oxygen and water -whose combination might lead to reduced microbial degradation (Bocherens et al, 1997;, which is an advantage for later fossilisation.…”

Section: Vertebrates 221 Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three-dimensional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of fossils across taxa

Mietchen

Aberhan²,

Manz

et al. 2008

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. The frequency of life forms in the fossil record is largely determined by the extent to which they were mineralised at the time of their death. In addition to mineral structures, many fossils nonetheless contain detectable amounts of residual water or organic molecules, the analysis of which has become an integral part of current palaeontological research. The methods available for this sort of investigations, though, typically require dissolution or ionisation of the fossil sample or parts thereof, which is an issue with rare taxa and outstanding materials like pathological or type specimens. In such cases, non-destructive techniques could provide a valuable methodological alternative. While Computed Tomography has long been used to study palaeontological specimens, a number of complementary approaches have recently gained ground. These include Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) which had previously been employed to obtain three-dimensional images of pathological belemnites non-invasively on the basis of intrinsic contrast. The present study was undertaken to investigate whether 1 H MRI can likewise provide anatomical information about nonpathological belemnites and specimens of other fossil taxa. To this end, three-dimensional MR image series were acquired from intact non-pathological invertebrate, vertebrate and plant fossils. At routine voxel resolutions in the range of several dozens to some hundreds of micrometers, these images reveal a host of anatomical details and thus highlight the potential of MR techniques to effectively complement existing methodological approaches for palaeontological investigations in a wide range of taxa. As for the origin of the MR signal, relaxation and diffusion measurements as well as 1 H and 13 C MR spectra acquired from a belemnite suggest intracrystalline water or hydroxyl groups, rather than organic residues.

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“…Multiple lines of evidence support the endogeneity of these recovered molecules in Cretaceous specimens, despite hypothesized temporal limits on molecular preservation of less than 1 Myr for proteins and approximately 100 000 years for DNA [26][27][28][29][30] (but see [31]) that are based upon degradation proxies of heat and/or pH [28,32], theoretical models of breakdown kinetics [33,34], and, recently, extrapolation from a select and time-limited set of fossils [35]. For soft tissues and the proteins comprising them to persist beyond these limits, a mode of preservation sufficiently rapid to outpace decay is required [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A role for iron and oxygen chemistry in preserving soft tissues, cells and molecules from deep time

Schweitzer¹,

et al. 2014

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The persistence of original soft tissues in Mesozoic fossil bone is not explained by current chemical degradation models. We identified iron particles (goethite-aFeO(OH)) associated with soft tissues recovered from two Mesozoic dinosaurs, using transmission electron microscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy, micro-X-ray diffraction and Fe micro-X-ray absorption nearedge structure. Iron chelators increased fossil tissue immunoreactivity to multiple antibodies dramatically, suggesting a role for iron in both preserving and masking proteins in fossil tissues. Haemoglobin (HB) increased tissue stability more than 200-fold, from approximately 3 days to more than two years at room temperature (258C) in an ostrich blood vessel model developed to test post-mortem 'tissue fixation' by cross-linking or peroxidation. HB-induced solution hypoxia coupled with iron chelation enhances preservation as follows: HB þ O 2 . HB 2 O 2 . 2O 2 þO 2 . The well-known O 2 /haeme interactions in the chemistry of life, such as respiration and bioenergetics, are complemented by O 2 /haeme interactions in the preservation of fossil soft tissues.

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A Basic Mathematical Simulation of the Chemical Degradation of Ancient Collagen

Cited by 197 publications

References 30 publications

The survival of organic matter in bone: a review

The survival of organic matter in bone: a review

Three-dimensional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of fossils across taxa

A role for iron and oxygen chemistry in preserving soft tissues, cells and molecules from deep time

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