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Mass Spectrometry and Evolution
- Posted at 9:15 AM on May. 3, 2009 by ausetute Chemists have used Mass Spectrometry to produce evidence that birds and dinosaurs are evolutionarily related. Protein samples were extracted from preserved tissue and bone fragments of an 80 million year old hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur). These were analyzed using an ion trap mass spectrometer which captures and holds peptides through time so that after the collected peptides are measured for mass they are isolated and fragmented to reveal their amino acid sequence. A total of eight collagen peptides and 149 amino acids were sequenced. The collagen sequences were compared to a database of collagen sequences with the result that the hadrosaur was placed in the same family-tree branch with Tyrannosaurus rex, chickens and ostriches, and shown to be more distantly related to alligators and lizards. Mary H. Schweitzer, Wenxia Zheng, Chris L. Organ, Recep Avci, Zhiyong Suo, Lisa M. Freimark, Valerie S. Lebleu, Michael B. Duncan, Matthew G. Vander Heiden, John M. Neveu, William S. Lane, John S. Cottrell, John R. Horner, Lewis C. Cantley, Raghu Kalluri, and John M. Asara. Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the Campanian Hadrosaur B. canadensis. Science, 2009; 324 (5927): 626 DOI: 10.1126/science.1165069 Post Comment
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