Twentieth-Century Paleoproteomics: Lessons from Venta Micena Fossils

Abstract

Proteomics methods can identify amino acid sequences in fossil proteins, thus making it possible to determine the ascription or proximity of a fossil to other species. Before mass spectrometry was used to study fossil proteins, earlier studies used antibodies to recognize their sequences. Lowenstein and colleagues, at the University of San Francisco, pioneered the identification of fossil proteins with immunological methods. His group, together with Olivares’s group at the University of Granada, studied the immunological reactions of proteins from the controversial Orce skull fragment (VM-0), a 1.3-million-year-old fossil found at the Venta Micena site in Orce (Granada province, southern Spain) and initially assigned to a hominin. However, discrepancies regarding the morphological features of the internal face of the fossil raised doubts about this ascription. In this article, we review the immunological analysis of the proteins extracted from VM-0 and other Venta Micena fossils assigned to hominins and to other mammals, and explain how these methods helped to determine the species specificity of these fossils and resolve paleontological controversies.

Collagen Derived from Fish Industry Waste: Progresses and Challenges

“…Based on the historical order of their discovery, 28 types of collagens—type I through type XXVIII—have been identified and described up to the current day [ 39 ]. The oldest collagen identified to date was found in the soft tissue of a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex bone that dates back 68 million years [ 40 , 41 ].…”

Paleontology in the 21st Century

“…The value of fossils for phylogenetic studies has always been recognized, but the value of fossils for molecular studies has recently, and increasingly, been elucidated by authors contributing here [ 23 ] and elsewhere. Torres et al [ 24 ] review the long history of paleoimmunological approaches to paleontology, and apply these methods to fossils from the 1.3 Ma Venta Micena site, whereas Tahoun et al [ 25 ] provide an overview of organic molecules recovered from non-avian dinosaurs and contemporary organisms, including pigments and various proteins. They highlight the effort within the paleontological community to understand the mechanisms of such preservation, contributing to the emerging disciplines of molecular paleontology, and molecular taphonomy/diagenesis.…”

Correction: Torres et al. Twentieth-Century Paleoproteomics: Lessons from Venta Micena Fossils. Biology 2022, 11, 1184

“…There was an error in the original publication [ 1 ]. A correction has been made to add the Acknowledgments Section :…”