Protein fragments have been able to maintain violent Rift Valley situations in Kenya
Ellen Miller
The fossilized teeth of the 18-million-year-old Kenya mammals have provided the oldest protein fragments obtained, which raised the age of the protections of ancient proteins.
Daniel Green At Harvard University, in collaboration with Kenyan scientists, found various remaining fossilized, including teeth, in the Rift Valley in Kenya. Volcanic activity has helped preserve samples by enrolling in the ash layers – layers that allow researchers to date teeth in 18 million years ago. But in the field, they do not know whether tooth enamel proteins have survived.
Difficulties are not good – the Rift Valley “is one of those who are persistent hotest places in the world for returning 5 million years”, as green. This violent and unforgivable climate creates “a very difficult environment for (protein) conservation”. However, the first research managed to seek tooth enamel proteins in toothpaste, even out of teeth like the old. So, to see if any protein traces managed to last, green used small drills to remove powder enamel from teeth. “It’s like a dentist a little,” he said.
Researchers send these samples Timothy Cleeland In Chinmerum at the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute for analysis. He used a technique called Mass Spectrometry to determine each type of molecule in the sample by separating them to their mass.
In surprise, he finds fragments of proteins that are completed enough to provide significant taxonomic information. It reveals that the teeth belong to prehistoric ancestors in elephants and rhinos: proboscideans and rhinocerotids, actually. The Cleeland is enthusiastic about being “able to do any elderly breeds of life in life with their modern relatives”.
Only a small amount of protein material is obtained, but that does not decrease the search, as Frido Welker At the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. He said the ability to develop protein and learning anything about a fossil that is old this “a large collapse”.
Teeth sampling, contrary to another tissue such as bone, can be key to finding protein fragments as old and informative like this. “Subsequences of enamel proteins are a little different,” says Cleeland, “so we can get a little evolutionary information.”
Making teeth can also help preserve their proteins for a long time. Because teeth are “most stone”, these minerals surround and help protect the enamel proteins of what is called Celfand in a “self-processed process”. And conservation is also helped because the enamel itself has a small amount of protein – about 1 percent. “Whatever protein concludes with tapping over the higher,” Green said.
The fact that protein fragments can survive at least the Rift Valley suggests ancient fossils to be found in other regions as well. “We can start thinking of other violent places on the planet where we don’t expect to have a great preservation,” Cleeland said. “There may be some microenvironmental differences leading to protein preservation.”
In addition to examining proteins from the same time as it is, researchers hope to see samples from different eras. “We want to come back in time,” Cleeland said. Green says that ugly of younger fossils can offer “a baseline of expectations” for the number of reserved fragments of protein fossil.
“We’re just clot on top right now,” Cleeland said.
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