Could proteins found in dinosaur fossils come from microbes?

[Oxytropidoceras]

Could proteins found in dinosaur fossils come from microbes?

A new study continues the debate over whether or not 

scientists have discovered fragments of actual dino proteins

by Laura Howes, Chemical & Engineering News

https://cen.acs.org/analytical-chemistry/art-&-artifacts/proteins-found-dinosaur-fossils-come-from-microbes/97/i27

 

Evan T Saitta, Renxing Liang, Maggie CY Lau, Caleb M Brown, 

Nicholas R Longrich, Thomas G Kaye, Ben J Novak, Steven L 

Salzberg, and Mark A Norell. 2019. Cretaceous dinosaur bone 

contains recent organic material and provides an environment

conducive to microbial communities. eLife

https://elifesciences.org/articles/46205

 

Raphael Eisenhofer and Alan Cooper. 2019. 

Fossils: A new home for microbes. eLife

https://elifesciences.org/articles/48493

 

An opposing open access paper is:

 

Schweitzer, M.H., Schroeter, E.R., Cleland, T.P. and Zheng, 

W., 2019. Paleoproteomics of Mesozoic dinosaurs and 

other Mesozoic fossils. Proteomics, p.1800251.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pmic.201800251

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

[Oxytropidoceras]

A related paper is:

 

Giuffrida, M.G., Mazzoli, R. and Pessione, E., 2018. 
Back to the past: deciphering cultural heritage 
secrets by protein identification. Applied microbiology 
and biotechnology, 102(13), pp.5445-5455.

 

PDF file -

https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1670455/421104/1-BACK TO THE PAST I. IRIS-Aperto.pdf

and https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1670455/421104/

 

Abstract and link -

https://iris.unito.it/handle/2318/1670455#.XSEVQy2ZPYo

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.