Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the Campanian Hadrosaur B. canadensis

2009/04/30 by Mary H. Schweitzer, Wenxia Zheng, Chris L. Organ +13 · 10 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Medicine · #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Cell Adhesion Molecules Research #Evolution and Paleontology Studies

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1165069

openalex publication_date 2009/04/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Molecular preservation in non-avian dinosaurs is controversial. We present multiple lines of evidence that endogenous proteinaceous material is preserved in bone fragments and soft tissues from an 80-million-year-old Campanian hadrosaur, Brachylophosaurus canadensis [Museum of the Rockies (MOR) 2598]. Microstructural and immunological data are consistent with preservation of multiple bone matrix and vessel proteins, and phylogenetic analyses of Brachylophosaurus collagen sequenced by mass spectrometry robustly support the bird-dinosaur clade, consistent with an endogenous source for these collagen peptides. These data complement earlier results from Tyrannosaurus rex (MOR 1125) and confirm that molecular preservation in Cretaceous dinosaurs is not a unique event.

Citations

• An approach to correlate tandem mass spectral data of peptides with amino acid sequences in a protein database
• Bayesian Estimation of Ancestral Character States on Phylogenies

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• Mass Spectrometry and Antibody-Based Characterization of Blood Vessels from Brachylophosaurus canadensis
• Reanalysis of Tyrannosaurus rex Mass Spectra
• Paleogenomics: Genome-Scale Analysis of Ancient DNA and Population and Evolutionary Genomic Inferences
• Dinosaur [wikipedia]
• Origin of birds [wikipedia]