Proteins in the fossil bone of the dinosaur, seismosaurus

Abstract

Proteins have been successfully extracted from the fossil vertebra of a 150-million-year-old sauropod dinosaur ("Seismosaurus") recently excavated from the Morrison Formation of New Mexico. HCl and guanidine.HCl extracts of the fossil bone and its sandstone matrix were concentrated, demineralized, and resolved into a number of different protein fractions by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). One of these fractions had the same retention time as collagen. Amino acid analysis (Pico-Tag method) of these fractions confirmed they were proteins. Comparison of the correlation coefficients of the amino acid analyses with that of collagen standards indicated that none of the fractions contained significant amounts of collagen. Similar HPLC profiles were obtained for the HCl extracts of fossil bone and its sandstone matrix suggesting they contained the same proteins. However, different HPLC profiles were obtained when these HCl extracts were dried and reextracted with guanidine.HCl. These different fractions represent proteins unique to the fossil and were not found in the sandstone matrix. These differences were confirmed by amino acid analysis. Such information on fossil bone proteins might provide useful knowledge concerning the evolution of skeletal molecules and the fossilization process. Similar information on the proteins from the geological matrix might provide useful fingerprints for reconstructing ancient environments and for assessing sedimentary rocks for fossil fuel exploration.

Characterization of the Mitotic Specific Phosphorylation Site of Histone H1

“…HPLC of Histones-Details of the fractionation and purification of histones by HPLC in our laboratory have recently been reviewed by Gurley et al (1990). In these experiments, the H1 dissolved in 200 l of aqueous 0.2% trifluoroacetic acid was divided into two parts, one 50-l sample to be used for measuring the 32 P incorporated into whole H1 and one 150-l sample to be used for measuring 32 P incorporated into the phosphopeptides of H1.…”

“…The details of this procedure using a Waters "application-specified" reversed-phase PICO-TAG C18 column have been described by Cohen et al (1989), and the specific instrumentation and application in our laboratory has been described previously (Gurley et al, 1991). This system has been demonstrated to give excellent linear response with very high reproducibility and a 1-pmol detection limit Cohen et al, 1984).…”

Heme compounds in dinosaur trabecular bone

“…However, 20 years ago, partial amino acid sequences were identified from the shells of mollusks Ϸ80 million years old (33). Gurley et al (34) followed with a report of amino acids in the bony tissues of the Late Jurassic (Ϸ150 million years ago) sauropod dinosaur, Seismosaurus, and more recently the small and highly acidic bone protein, osteocalcin, has been recognized immunologically in extracts of dinosaurian bone (35). Stable isotope studies (36), including those done on the specimen used in the following study (37), indicate that at least some of these molecules are endogenous to the fossils, rather than arising from younger exogenous contaminants.…”

Molecular preservation in Late Cretaceous sauropod dinosaur eggshells

“…Weiner et al 1976;Westbroek et al 1979;Armstrong et al 1983 and references therein;Lowenstein 1981Lowenstein , 1985Ostrom et al 1990;Collins et al 1991;Gurley et al 1991;Muyzer et al 1992;Stankiewicz et al 1997aStankiewicz et al ,b, 1998Schweitzer et al 1997aSchweitzer et al ,b, 1999aSchweitzer et al ,b, 2002Poinar et al 1998;Collins et al 1999). Immunological techniques have identified antigenic compounds in fossils of varying ages and from various source taxa (e.g.…”