Fossilization is rare, as normally when an organism dies, its organic material gets completely decomposed, leaving only the hard skeleton behind. Fossils are formed under exceptional circumstances, which are still not well understood, in which organic material or “soft tissue” is preserved due to quick burial and isolation shortly after death. After millions of years, fossils are excavated by paleontologists, studying their morphological and microscopic features to gain valuable biological and evolutionary insights. In dinosaurs, soft tissue preservation has been reported since the 1960s, and mostly the bones have been studied.
How to detect organic compounds in fossils
Remarkably, bone histology is preserved in dinosaur fossils, even those aged more than 200 million years, and microstructures such as osteocytes and blood vessels were detected. The microstructures often resemble those of the fossil’s living relatives. To confirm this, analytical chemists use advanced sensitive instruments to detect organic compounds in fossils, part of an evolving field known as molecular paleontology. Typically, destructive techniques, like mass spectrometry, which destroy the sample, and non-destructive techniques, like Raman spectroscopy, after which the sample is recovered, are employed. One important factor to remember is that some molecules are more robust than others by nature. Among the molecules with high preservation potential are fats, but it is unlikely to find DNA, so Jurassic Park fans will be disappointed to know that cloning dinosaur DNA isn’t possible. Since the 1990s, several dinosaur specimens have been reported to contain preserved organic compounds in their bones, mainly proteins and pigments. Trabecular bone extracts of the 66 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex has been found to contain traces of heme, the blood pigment, while peptides of collagen have been detected in the bones of T. rex and an 80-million-year old Brachylophosaurus canadensis.
Revealing Secrets and facing Challenges
This exciting field continues to reveal new secrets, but there are challenges, especially in ruling out contamination to confirm that the organic compound indeed belongs to the fossil. One thing’s for sure: Your next visit to a natural history museum will not be the same again due to your altered perception of how these impressive fossils were formed!
Mehr erfahren:
Quantenmechanik – das Herzstück der modernen Physik
Willkommen in der schwer greifbaren, scheinbar etwas unscharfen Welt der Quantenmechanik – ein Bereich der Physik, der nicht nur die Grundlagenforschung revolutioniert hat, sondern auch die moderne Technologie prägt. Ohne Quantenmechanik wären viele technische...
Das Ende der Evolution beim Menschen?
Der Mensch ist wie jedes andere Lebewesen ein Produkt der Evolution. Die Analyse unseres humanen Genoms hat u. a. gezeigt, dass wir DNA-Sequenzen von mehreren heute nicht mehr existenten Frühmenschen in uns tragen, z. B. vom Neandertaler oder vom Denisova-Menschen....
Ökonomie – Wege zum Wohle aller
Stell dir vor, du lebst in einem Schlaraffenland, wo Milch und Honig fließen und gebratene Tauben dir direkt in den Mund fliegen. Klingt traumhaft, oder? Aber in der realen Welt sieht es anders aus. Hier müssen wir wirtschaften, weil Ressourcen knapp sind. Genau darum...
Verdünnung einer Stammlösung: Wie verdünne ich eine Lösung?
Zur Herstellung von Lösungen setzt man im Labor gerne konzentrierte Stammlösungen ein. Diese können zu einer Arbeitslösung hinzugegeben werden, wenn diese eine geringere Konzentration der eingesetzten Stammlösung enthalten soll. Leicht gesagt, wenn man wüsste, wie...