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- Prehistoric Creatures Documented by the Ancient Man
Fossil Biochemistry - Ancient macromolecules
FOSSILOMICS
Muinaismolekyylit
Eräs fossiileihin liittyvä esimerkki, joka oikeaksi osoittauduttuaan puhuisi maapallon pitkää ikää vastaan, on perimämolekyylien mahdollinen säilyminen suurissa fossiililuissa. Dino-DNA:ta yms. pyritään monistamaan solun omilla DNA:ta kopioivilla entsyymeillä ns. PCR-menetelmällä (polymerase chain reaction). PCR-menetelmän kehittämisen jälkeen DNA:ta yritettiin monistaa fossiileistakin lähinnä pilan päiten. Kun tämä sitten onnistuikin, oli ihmetys suuri. Asiaa hämmensivät Crichton ja Spielberg Jurassic Park -jutuillaan, mutta uuden dinobuumin takana ei siis ole pelkkää fiktiota. PCR-menetelmä oli kuitenkin verrattain uusi fossiili-DNA:han liittyviä tuloksia julkaistaessa ja siihen on suhtauduttava äärimmäisellä varovaisuudella. Tämä menetelmä oli kuitenkin verrattain uusi fossiili-DNA:han liittyviä tuloksia julkaistaessa.
PCR-menetelmän kehittämisen jälkeen DNA:ta yritettiin pilan päiten monistaa fossiileistakin. Kun tämä sitten onnistuikin, oli ihmetys suuri. Asiaa hämmensi Crichton ja Spielberg Jurassic Park –jutuillaan, mutta uuden dinobuumin takana ei siis ole pelkkää fiktiota. Tämänhetkisen mielipiteen mukaan työt on kumottu kontaminaatioriskiin sekä vaikeaan toistettavuuteen vedoten. Hassua on vain se, että kymmenisen kappaletta alan jutuista ehdittiin julkaista parhaissa tiedelehdissä 90-luvun alkupuolelta alkaen. Tällöin töitä kutsuttiin useamman ryhmän toistamaksi ja sekvenssianalyysin sanottiin varmistavan näytteiden aitouden ja niistä vedettiin johtopäätöksiä kladistiikan hienosätöön. Meripihkamehiläisen tapauksessa ei natsannut ainoastaan hyönteisen, vaan myös sen enterobakteerin sekvenssit . Viikin maanantaiseminaarissa vieraillut Svante Pääbo kertoi DNA:n säilyvän korkeintaan 30-50000 vuotta, varsinaiset DNA:n rakenteen tutkijat sanovat joskus katon olevan 10 000 vuotta. Parhaimmissa töissä ei siis ole huomautettavaa tekniikan, vaan teorian puolella.
Vaika PCR-tulokset olisivatkin sammakoita, niin DNA:n eristämistä ylipäänsä on kuvattu tätäkin enemmän. Magnolia herätti kiinnostusta, koska kymmeniä miljoonia vuosia vanhan näytteen vihreä väri katoaa joissakin sekunneissa kun fossiili käännetään vanhasta järvenpohjasta ja savilaatasta auringonvaloon. Mitä toistettavuuteen tulee, niin "muinais-DNA" on huonossa kunnossa. Se esiintyy vain muutaman sadan nukleotidin pätkissä, juosteet ovat "takussa" ja sen emäkset ovat usein hapettuneita tai kokonaan poissa. Mm. tammen, tulppaanin, magnolian ja sypressin fossiililehdistä on onnistuttu eristämään DNA:ta ja sekvenoimaan niistä biosfäärin yleisintä proteiinia, kloroplastista monikopioista rubiscoa. Vaikka kaikki todella olisi ollut kontaminaatiotakin, on hälyttävää miten havainnot selitettiin sujuvasti pois tuloksiin vielä luotettaessa. Tällä saralla ylpeys ja ennakkoluulo törmäävät kunnolla.
Liitukauden (65 Mrv) tuolta puolen on löydetty myös mm. dentiiniä, kollageenia ja osteokalsiinia. Kuitenkin 13000 vuoden ikäiseksi arviodusta mammutinluusta kaikki kollageeni on saattanut jo hävitä. Koppakuoriaisen kitiini välkehti 25 Mrv jälkeen ilkikurisesti kaikissa pääväreissä ja varmuuden välttämiseksi asia sinetöitiin massaspektrometrillä ampumalla. Dinoluut eivät monesti ole kokonaan kivettyneet. 80 Mrv takaa kalsiumin ja fosforin suhde saattaa olla aivan samanlainen kuin nykyisissä luissa. Alaskan rannikolla tutkijat eivät koskeneet lähes kivettymättömiin dinosaurusten luihin, koska olettivat kyseessä olleen biisonien luut. Kivettynyttä puuta syntetisoidaan bisnes-mielessä ja sitä muodostuu esim. kuumissa lähteissä joissakin kuukausissa. Eteläafrikan boikotin aikaan taas maassa tehtiin pienessä mittakaavassa biomassasta öljyä parhaimmillaan varttitunnissa, kunhan olosuhteet vain ovat kyllin kovat.
PCR-temput ovat uusi menetelmä, mutta mm. 25 Mrv meripihkasta on kyetty eristämään myös eläviä – vieläpä kriitikoille resistenttejä – bakteereita. Tämä on varsin erikoista siihen nähden, että aminohappojen rasemisaationopeuksista eri olosuhteissa on aivan eri kertaluokkien empiiristä dataa. L-aminohapot rasemisoituvat peilikuvikseen puoliintumisnopeuden vaihdellessa 400 ja 50000 vuoden välillä (25 oC), sata kertaa hitaammin nollassa asteessa. Vaikka itiöissä olisi aineenvaihduntaa hapettumisen, rasemisaation jne. korjaamiseksi, niin tähän tarvittava energialähde puuttuisi. Samat ryhmät ovat herättäneet meripihkafossiileista henkiin tieteelle tyystin tuntemattomiakin bakteerilajeja.
Meripihkamehiläisen tapauksessa ei natsannut ainoastaan hyönteisen, vaan myös sen enterobakteerin sekvenssit. DNA:n kemiallisen rakenteen asiantuntijat sanovat perimämolekyylin säilyvän korkeintaan 50 000 vuotta. Parhaimmissa töissä ei siis ole huomautettavaa niinkään tekniikan, kuin teorian puolelta.
Kudosten ja solujen löytäminen kymmeniä miljoonia vuosia vanhojen fossiilien luuleikkauksista oli melkoinen järkytys asianosaiselle mikroskoopin käyttäjälle. Tällaisia luita sahattaessa haistaa palaneen (luun) käryä ja kokenut paleontologi arvioi fossiilin aitoutta ensi töikseen nuolaisemalla luun murtunutta pintaa. Erään menetelmän avulla fossiloituneiden luiden solurakenteesta voi olla mahdollista määrittää eläimen ihonväri. Tämä edellyttää hyvin säilyneitä väripigmentin jäännöksiä ja mitä ilmeisimmin löytöjen suhteellisen lyhyttä ikää. Australiassa on kaupan Jurassic Beer - niminen olutmerkki, jota tuottaa ainakin mainostajan mukaan fossiilista eristetty hiivakanta.
PCR:llä tehdyt monistustemput ovat verrattain nuori menetelmä. 25-40 Mrv vanhasta meripihkasta on kyetty kuitenkin eristämään myös eläviä - vieläpä kriitikoille resistenttejä - bakteereita.Tämä on varsin erikoista siihen nähden, että aminohappojen rasemisaationopeuksista eri olosuhteissa on aivan eri kertaluokkien empiiristä dataa. L-aminohapot rasemisoituvat peilikuvikseen noin 400-50 000 vuoden puoliintumisnopeudella (25 oC), sata kertaa hitaammin nollassa asteessa.Metsään kuolleen eläimen luut, lihakset ja veri muuttuvat vähitellen vedeksi ja hiilidioksidiksi eli häviävät olemattomiin. Vaikka itiöissä olisi aineenvaihduntaa hapettumisen, rasemisaation jne. aiheuttamien vaurioiden korjaamiseksi, niin tähänvaadittava energialähde puuttuisi. Samat tutkimusryhmät ovat herättäneet meripihkafossiileista henkiin tieteelle tuntemattomiakin bakteerilajeja.T-rexin ronkkaluusta on ilmeisesti eristetty punasoluja ja hyönteisfossiileista bakteerien itiöitä. Pernaruttobakteerin itiön tiedetään säilyneen itiöasteella hengissä nelisensataa vuotta, eli puhumme suhteellisen pienistä aikajaksoista.
Jos siis 569 miljoonaa vuotta vanhasta ja 250 metriä syvältä - anteeksi toisinpäin - kaivetun suolakiteen vesitaskusta löytyy eläviä Bacilluksia ja havaintoa diskutoidaan piristävänä lisätodisteena evoluutiosta, ei kyse ole tieteellisestä, vaan uskonnollisesta keskustelusta. Jälkimmäinen, TV-uutisia myöten popularisoitu viime syksyn löytöhän valjastettiin aihetodisteeksi aurinkokuntien välisestä "panspermiasta", vaikka 16S rDNA:n perusteella muinaisbaku oli 99 % samanlainen Bacillus marismortui -halobakteerin kanssa. ("Kuollutmeri" ei siis olekaan kuollut. Tätä aiemmin ikäennätystä piti siis hallussaan 25-40 miljoonaa vuotta vanhaksi katsottu bakteeri, joka löydettiin aikoinaan meriphkan sisään umpioituneen mehiläisen sisuksista. ) SETIllä taitaa olla silmät eri indeksillä teleskooppiin ja mikroskooppiin katsottaessa, mitä älyn ulkopuolisen rahoittajan olemassaoloon tulee. Evoluutio vaikuttaa liian syvältä paradigmalta luonnontieteen pitkän kouran ylettyä. Mikäli poikki tieteen juuttunut teoria ja tulkinnallinen viitekehys unohdettaisiin, olisi tällaisten johtopäätösten relevanssi tohu ja bohu - autio ja tyhjä.
Keskimäärin yhden lajin päivässä arvellaan kuolleen sukupuuttoon vuodesta 1758, josta lähtien eläinlajien tilastoja on pidetty. Vuoden 1998 IUCN Worldwatch-raportin mukaan suurista eläimistä parhaiten tunnetaan linnut, joiden lajimäärä on 10 000 tietämillä ja joista uhanalaisia on yli tuhat. Matelijoita lienee niin ikään 10 000 paikkeilla, ja nisäkkäitä on noin 4400, joista neljänneksen olemassaolo on vaarassa. Matelijoista joka viides, sammakkolajeista joka neljäs ja kaloista joka kolmas on tänään uhanalainen.
Mitä kasvillisuuteen tulee, niin viimeisen sadan vuoden aikana puolet maapallon kosteikoista on tuhoutunut ja puolet metsistä kaadettu. Maapallon maapinta-alasta (jää ja kallio poislukien) häiriytymätöntä on 27 %. USA:ssa luonnonmetsistä on jäljellä 15 %, Kanadassa 40 %, Euroopassa ja Kiinassa 1 %. Alkaneen vuosisadan aikana ennustetaan Telluksen eliölajeista puolen kuolevan sukupuuttoon. Nopeuden uskotaan tätä nykyä olevan tuhatkertainen fossiiliaineistosta pääteltyyn taustaan nähden. Tätä vauhtia joissakin tuhansissa vuosissa päästäisiin bakteerien valtakauden tilastopoikkeamista kokolailla kokonaan.
Teknokratian käppyrät ovat kyllä tempaisseet viimeisten parin sadan vuoden aikana eksponentiaalisiksi, mutta jospa luteita rassaa myös kertaluokkien ero geologisen ja biologisen ajanmäärityksen välillä? Entropian saldo pääomittuu WWF:n rahastoa varmemmin, koska termodynamiikan toinen pääsääntö on loppujen lopuksi ns. luonnonlaki.
Pohjois-Amerikassa eli vielä alle 10 000 vuotta sitten parhaimmillaan seitsenmetrinen jättiläislaiskiainen ja Etelä-Amerikan intiaanit päällystivät kolmimetristen vyötiäisten panssareilla hautojaan. Moa oli lentokyvytön, strutsin kaltainen lintu joka kasvoi jopa kolmemetriseksi ja joka metsästettiin sukupuuttoon vasta noin 300 vuotta sitten. Jopa 450-kiloinen Marco "miljoona" Polon nimeämä Madagasgarin norsulintukin eli vielä 1600-luvulla. Monet Pohjois-Amerikan intiaaniheimot tunsivat parhaimmillaan kolmanneksen nykynorsuja suuremmat mammutit ja vuonna 1873 raportoitiin vielä silminnäkijöiden väitteitä Siperian mammuttilaumoista. Venäjän tasangoilla ihmiset jopa asuivat mammutin luista tehdyissä majoissa. Kolmeen kivikautiseen taloon Ukrainassa käytettiin 1700 luuta jotka olivat peräisin vähintään sadasta mammutista. Ensimmäisenä Euraasian ympäri purjehtinut nationalistimme AE Nordenskiöld kertoi pohjoiskalotin asukkaiden mammutinjäämistöistä valmistetuista käyttö- ja taide-esineistä. Hän arveli alueella liikkuneen kauppatavarana yli 20 000 mammuttiyksilön jäämistöä.
Antiikin semi-eläintieteellisiin klassikoihin tutustuvalle voi tulla yllätyksenä, miten paljon niiden kuvaamista eliöistä on kuollut sukupuuttoon historiallisella ajalla. - Siitäkin huolimatta, että luokittelisi oheisten viitteiden vanhojen partojen "lentävien käärmeiden", ukkoslintujen, lohikäärmeiden ja muiden hirmuisten liskojen kerettiläisen kategorian satujen taksonomiaan. Kotopuolessahan nämä myytit kulkivat vaakalinnun, tursaan tai ikiturson nimillä muinaiskalevalaisessa aineistossa. Nämä nuotiojutut ovat sikäli erikoisia, että esiintyvät paisutteluista huolimatta samankaltaisina Japanista aina Keski-Afrikkaan, Lähi-Itään, Eurooppaan ja Amerikkoihin saakka. On harmillista, ettei Lemminkäisen Hiiden hirven hiihtoa tai –nelimetrisiä sarvia kantaneen saksanhirven fossiiliaineistoon sopivammin – Nibelungin hirveä ole dokumentoitu riittävällä tarkkuudella.
"Scarlett O'Hara ei ollut kaunis, mutta sitä harvoin tulivat huomanneeksi ne, jotka joutuivat hänen viehätysvoimansa lumoihin..."Myös tieteiden keisari on kohtalokas paradigma. Humanismin yhtenäisteoriaa evoluutiota vaivaa kehäpäättelyn ongelma, jonka oivaltaa syvällisesti sinisten aurinkolasien suoman metaforan kautta. Koska hysteria ruokkii itse itseään, voidaan kysyä: ollaanko lajien muuntelukapasiteetin suhteessa muka-miljoonien vuosien ajanjaksoihin menetetty suhteellisuudentaju tyystin?
Pauli Ojala
biokemisti, putkimies
Lähteet:
http://www.biokemia.fi/Hysteria.htm
http://www.biokemia.fi/TRexin_verisuonet.htm
Lindahl
T (1993). Instability and decay of the primary structure of DNA.
Nature 362, 709-715.
Nature
(1991) 352, 381.
Sansom
IJ, Smith MP ja Smith MM (1994). Nature 368, 591.
Ho
TY (1965). PNAS 54, 26-31.
Wyckoff
RWG & Davidson FD. (1976) Comp. Biochem. Physiol B. 55,
95-97.
Science
261, 161.
Science
(1978) 200, 1275.
Stankiewicz
BA ym. (1997). Science 276, 1541-1543.
Barreto
C ym. (1993) Science 262, 2020-2023.
J.
Paleont. (1987) 61, 198-200.
Cano
RJ & Borucki MK (1995). Revival and identification of bacterial
spores in 25- to 40-million-year-old Dominican amber. Science 268,
1060-1064.
Bada
JL. Racemization of Amino Acids in Nature (1982). Int. Disc. Sci.
Rev. 7, 30-46.
New
Scientist 17.5.1997 s. 7.
Vreeland
RH, Rosenzweig WD & Powers DW. (2000). Isolation of a 250
million-year-old halotolerant bacterium from a primary salt crystal.
Nature 407, 897-900.
Vielä
1960-luvun alussa avaruuspölyä uskottiin kertyvän Maan
pinnalle 5-14 miljoonaa tonnia vuodessa. (Hans Pettersson (1960)
"Cosmic Spherules and Meteoric Dust," Sci. Amer., 202:132
). Myöhemmin arvioita on korjattu 18000-25000 tonniin vuodessa,
joskin tuloksissa on hajontaa kumpaankin suuntaan. Pölyä
toki kertyy enemmän, mutta sen Maan ulkopuolisen alkuperän
todistaminen on vaikeaa. Mitä Kuuhun tulee, niin siellä ei
ole eroosiota, joten pölyn pitäisi säilyä. Kuuhun
oli lähetetty ensin miehittämättömiä aluksia
ja aikaisemmat paksua pölykerrosta ennakoineet arviot olivat jo
miehitetyn lennon aikana pääasiassa väistyneet.
Käsitykseen paksusta pölykerroksesta lienee vaikuttanut
myös ikuisen poleemikon Sir Fred Hoylen tieteisromaani, jossa on
fiktiivinen kuvaus kraateriin kasautuneesta pölystä.
Woese
CR (2002). On the evolution of cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99,
8742-7.
DUODECIM-LEHTI
Duodecim 2005; 121:1371 (toimittaja M.S.)
"HIRMULISKON VERISUONET
Tutkijat löytävät ikivanhan Tyrannosaurus rexin luurangon pohjoisilta Kalliovuorilta. He demineralisoivat aseptisissa oloissa reisiluun palan ja onnistuvat eristämään läpinäkyviä, taipuisia ja onttoja verisuonia.
Suonia voi venyttää useita kertoja niin, että ne palautuvat alkuperäiseen kokoonsa. Suonet muodostavat luulle tyypillisen haarautuvan Haversin kanavien näköisen rakenteen. Suonen sisäpinnalla näkyy endoteelisolun tuman kaltaisia pullistumia ja mahdollisesti endoteelisolujen välisiä liitoksia. Suonten sisältä löytyy punaruskeita verisoluja tumanmuotoisine rakenteineen.
Immunologisissa kokeissa tyrannosauruksen luujauho reagoi evoluutiossa hyvin säilyneisiin antigeeneihin (kanan kollageeni ja lehmän osteokalsiini) kohdistuvien vasta-aineiden kanssa osoittaen, että näyte sisältää jonkin verran liskon alkuperäisiä proteiineja. Tutkijat jäävät selvittämään, onko tästä poikkeuksellisen hyvin säilyneestä fossiilista eristettävissä liskon DNA:ta.
Kyseessä ei ole uuden tieteiselokuvan prologi vaan paleontologiryhmän Science-lehdessä julkaisema raportti. Pehmytkudosten, kuten taipuisien suonten ja verisolujen näin erinomainen säilyminen viittaa siihen, että näytteissä olisi jäljellä alkuperäisiä proteiineja ja jopa DNA:ta. Tästä olisi kuitenkin vielä pitkä matka siihen huikeaan mahdollisuuteen, että nämä orgaaniset molekyylit olisivat todella säilyneet ehjinä. Kuusikymmentäkahdeksan miljoonaa vuotta vanhat verisuonet ja -solut näyttävät kuvissa kuitenkin niin samanlaisilta kuin nykyisin laboratoriossa eristetyt tuoreet vastineensa, että mielikuvitus lähtee helposti laukkaamaan."
Duodecim on ainoa suomalainen bio- ja lääketieteen PubMed-tietokannassa noteerattu vertaisarvioitu tiedelehti.
From http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090729103737.htm
Ashby
Reexamination
Of T. Rex Verifies Disputed Biochemical Remains
ScienceDaily
(July 31, 2009) — A new analysis of the remains of a
Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) that roamed Earth 68 million years ago has
confirmed traces of protein from blood and bone, tendons, or
cartilage. The findings, scheduled for publication in the Sept. 4
issue of the Journal of Proteome Research, is the latest addition to
an ongoing controversy over which biochemical remnants can be
detected in the dinosaur.
In the study, Marshall Bern, Brett S. Phinney and David Goldberg point out that the first analysis in 2007 of a well-preserved, fossilized T. rex bone identified traces of seven distinct protein fragments, or peptides, from collagen. That material is one of the primary components of bone, tendons and other connective tissue. However, later studies disputed that finding, suggesting that it was a statistical fluke or the result of contamination from another laboratory sample.
The
scientists describe reanalysis of the T. rex data and also report
finding evidence of substances found in collagen. "In summary,
we find nothing obviously wrong with the Tyrannosaurus rex [analysis
from 2007]," the report states. "The identified peptides
seem consistent with a sample containing old, quite possibly very
ancient, bird-like bone, contaminated with only fairly explicable
proteins. Hemoglobin and collagen are plausible proteins to find in
fossil bone, because they are two of the most abundant proteins in
bone and bone marrow."
Marshall Bern, Brett S. Phinney
and David Goldberg. Reanalysis of Tyrannosaurus Rex Mass Spectra.
Journal of Proteome Research, Sept. 4, 2009 [link]
Adapted from
materials provided by American Chemical Society, via EurekAlert!, a
service of AAAS.
Tuorein havainto kentällä koskee Jura-kauden mustekalassa säilynyttä mustetta:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/8208838.stm
Palaeontologists have drawn with ink extracted from a preserved fossilised squid uncovered during a dig in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
The fossil, thought to be 150 million years old, was found when a rock was cracked open, revealing the one-inch-long black ink sac.
A picture of the creature and its Latin name was drawn using its ink.
Dr Phil Wilby of the British Geological Survey said it was an ancient creature similar to the modern-day squid.
"The structure is similar to ink from a modern squid so we can write with it," he said.
'Medusa effect'
The find was made at a site which was first excavated in Victorian times where thousands of Jurassic fossils with preserved soft tissues were found.
Dr Wilby, who led the excavation, said: "We think that these creatures were swimming around during the Jurassic period and were turned to stone soon after death. It's called the Medusa effect."
Experts believe one possibility is that thousands of the creatures congregated in the area to mate before being poisoned by algae in the water.
Remains of a different species of squid have also been found, suggesting the carcasses attracted predators to feed on them and they in turn also died.
Dr Wilby said: "They can be dissected as if they are living animals, you can see the muscle fibres and cells.
"It is difficult to imagine how you can have something as soft and sloppy as an ink sac fossilised in three dimension, still black, and inside a rock that is 150 million years old."
The specimen is now in the British Geological Survey collection in Nottingham.
Part of the ink sac has been sent to Yale University in America for more in-depth chemical analysis.
25
MARCH 2005 VOL 307 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.1852 org
Tyrannosaurus
rex Soft Tissue Raises Tantalizing Prospects
It’s
not Jurassic Park–style cloning, but a
remarkable find has
given paleontologists
their most lifelike look yet inside
Tyrannosaurus
rex—and, just possibly, a pinch of
the
long-gone beast itself.
On page 1952, a team led by
Mary
Schweitzer of North Carolina State University
in Raleigh
describes dinosaur blood
vessels—still flexible and elastic
after
68 million years—and apparently intact
cells. “If
we have tissues that are not
fossilized, then we can potentially
extract
DNA,” says Lawrence Witmer, a paleontologist
at
Ohio University College of Osteopathic
Medicine in Athens. “It’s
very exciting.”
But don’t f ire up the
sequencing
machines just yet. Experts, and the team
itself, say
they won’t be convinced that the
original material has
survived unaltered
until further test results come in.
The
skeleton was excavated in 2003 from
the Hell Creek Formation of
Montana by
co-author Jack Horner’s crew at the Museum
of
the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. Back in
the lab, Schweitzer and
her technician demineralized
the fragments by soaking them in
a
weak acid. As the fossil dissolved, transparent
vessels were
left behind. “It was totally shocking,”
Schweitzer
says. “I didn’t believe it until
we’d done it 17
times.” Branching vessels also
appeared in fragments from a
hadrosaur and
another Tyrannosaurus skeleton. Many of the
vessels
contain red and brown structures that
resemble cells. And inside
these are smaller
objects similar in size to the nuclei of
the
blood cells in modern birds. The team also
found
osteocytes,
cells that deposit bone
minerals, preserved
with
slender filipodia
still intact.
If the cells consist
of
original material,
paleontologists might
be able to extract
new
informat ion
about dinosaurs. For
instance, they could
use
the same sort of protein antibody testing
that helps biologists
determine evolutionary
relationships of living organisms. “There’s
a
reasonable chance that there may be intact proteins,”
says
David Martill of the University of
Portsmouth, United Kingdom.
Perhaps, he
says, even DNA might be extracted.
Hendrik
Poinar of McMaster University
in Hamilton, Ontario, cautions that
looks can
deceive: Nucleated protozoan cells have been
found in
225-million-year-old amber, but
geochemical tests revealed that
the nuclei had
been replaced with resin compounds. Even
the
resilience of the vessels may be deceptive.
Flexible fossils of
colonial marine organisms
called graptolites have been recovered
from
440-million-year-old rocks, but the original
material—likely
collagen—had not survived.
Schweitzer is seeking funding
for sophisticated
tests that would use techniques such as
mass
spectroscopy and high performance liquid
chromatography to check
for dino tissue.
As for DNA, which is less abundant and
more
fragile than proteins, Poinar says it’s
theoretically
possible that some may have survived, if
conditions
stayed just right (preferably dry
and subzero) for 68 million
years. “Wouldn’t
it be cool?” he muses, but adds
“the likelihood
is probably next to none.”
–ERIK
STOKSTAD
http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/24h/id76815.html
Dinosauruksen
lihaksia ja nahkaa löytyi USA:sta
Julkaistu 05.12.2007, klo
19.35
Dinosaurustutkijoilla on ollut antoisa viikko, sillä
uusista löydöistä on kerrottu niin Yhdysvalloissa kuin
Euroopassa.
Pohjois-Dakotasta Yhdysvalloista löydetty
hadrosaurus ei lajina ole epätavallinen löytö, mutta
on lähes ainutlaatuista, että kivettyneiden luiden lisäksi
67 miljoonan vuoden takaa on säilynyt myös lihaksia,
nahkaa ja jänteitä. Tutkimusten edetessä paleontologit
toivovat ruhosta paljastuvan jopa sisäelimiä.
Lihasten
fossiileista paleontologit ovat päätelleet, että 7 -
9-metrisen kasvissyöjäsauruksen takamus oli paljon luultua
lihaksikkaampi, mikä kasvattaa myös arviota otuksen
huippunopeudesta. 45 kilometrin tuntivauhtia pinkonut hadrosaurus
olisi ollut kyllin nopea pääsemään pakoon
Tyrannosaurus rexiä. Samalta Hell Creekin alueelta on aiemmin
löydetty useita T. rexin luurankoja sekä oletettavasti T.
rexin ensimmäinen tunnettu jalanjälki.
Saalistajan
välttelyssä auttoivat ilmeisesti myös suojaraidat,
joita hadrosauruksella oli nahassaan. Nahan väriä
kivettymästä ei valitettavasti voi päätellä,
eikä DNA:nkaan löytyminen ole mahdollista, sillä
kudosten kivettyessä mineraalit korvaavat orgaanisen aineen.
Kivettyneinäkin dinosauruksen pehmytkudoksia on kuitenkin
löydetty alle kymmenen kertaa. Hell Creekin yksilö säilyi
poikkeuksellisen täydellisenä, koska se hautautui
kuolemansa jälkeen nopeasti mutaan.
Dakotaksi
nimetyn eläimen löysi paleontologiasta kiinnostunut
koulupoika vuonna 1999, mutta tutkimuksissa on mennyt aikaa.
Perinpohjaisen kuvan saamiseksi Dakota tutkitaan Boeingin
lentokonetehtaalla maailman suurimmassa magneettikuvauslaitteessa,
joka on yleensä varattu muun muassa avaruussukkuloiden
moottorien tutkimiseen.
Reuters, AFP, AP
Eikä seuraava tarina ole palturia. MILJOONA ON SENTÄÄN MILJOONA! Lukeehan se painetussa sanassa. Mustaa valkoisella aivan selvästi.
http://www.tekniikkatalous.fi/tk/article40258.ece
Jäätiköiden uumenissa pakastuneet bakteerit säilyvät elinkelpoisina noin miljoona vuotta. Jopa kahdeksan miljoonan vuoden ikäiset bakteerit osoittavat elonmerkkejä, kun ne on sulatettu napajään uumenista.
Niiden dna on kuitenkin vahingoittunutta, ne kasvavat hitaasti eikä niistä saa lajimääritystä. Neljän yliopiston yhteishankkeessa tutkijat sulattivat jäänäytteitä, joiden ikä vaihteli 100 000 vuoden ja kahdeksan miljoonan vuoden välillä.
Aina miljoonan vuoden ikään asti näytteissä oli runsaasti bakteereita, jotka kasvoivat ja kaksinkertaistivat määränsä muutamassa päivässä. Vanhemmissa näytteissä bakteereita oli vähemmän ja kaksinkertaistuminen kesti 70 päivää.
Tutkijoiden mukaan koe osoitti, että dna:n "puoliintumisaika" on 1,1 miljoonaa vuotta. Tämän ajan kuluttua dna:sta on siis vielä puolet jäljellä. Vanhimmissa näytteissä oli jäljellä keskimäärin 210 emäsparia, kun normaalin bakteerin genomissa on kolme miljoonaa emäsparia.
Näytteet kerättiin Etelänapamantereelta, mistä löytyy maapallon vanhin jää. Napa-alueilla on myös dna:ta tuhoavaa kosmista säteilyä enemmän kuin muualla.
Tutkijoiden mukaan tulos romuttaa teorian, että elämä olisi saapunut maapallolle komeettojen mukana avaruudesta, koska dna ei olisi kestänyt avaruuden säteilypommitusta.
Tutkimuksessa olivat mukana Rutgersin, New Jerseyn osavaltion ja Bostonin yliopistot, ja julkaisun kirjoittaja on Rutgersin meritieteen apulaisprofessori Kay Bidle."
PS. Jo nopeimmin rasemisoituvan aminohapon, aspartaatin, puoliintumisaika D-muotoonsa huoneenlämmössä on 400 vuotta. Nollassa asteessa se hidastuu huomattavasti, ehkä jopa kymmenkertaisesti. Mutta jos suhde on 1:1 vähän joka aminohapolle, niin se itiö ei enää virkoa henkiin.
http://creationsafaris.com/crev200904.htm#20090430a
Dinosaur
Blood Protein, Cells Recovered
04/30/2009
April
30, 2009 — It’s official: soft tissue, including blood
vessel proteins and structures resembling cells, have been recovered
from dinosaur bone. Mary Schweitzer’s amazing claim in
2005 (03/24/2005)
was subsequently disputed as possible contamination from biofilms
(07/30/2008).
Now, Schweitzer and her team took exceptional precautions to avoid
contamination by excavating hadrosaur bone from sandstone said to be
80 million years old. A short description of her findings, and
a picture of the tissue, was announced today by New
Scientist. The paper followed shortly after in the May 1
issue of Science.1
A press release from Schweitzer’s institution, North
Carolina State University, says that the preservation of soft
tissue in this duck-billed dinosaur fossil was even better than the
material from the T.
rex bone
analyzed in 2005.
Robert F. Service commented on the
finding in the same issue of Science.2
He was a little cautious, putting the word ‘protein” in
quotes in his title, but then he said this:
A controversial finding that protein fragments can be recovered from dinosaur fossils has been replicated for the first time. Two years ago, Mary Schweitzer, a paleontologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and colleagues stunned the paleontology community when they reported discovering intact protein fragments in a fossil from a Tyrannosaurus rex that died 68 million years ago. The claim has remained contentious, because proteins in tissue normally degrade quickly after an animal dies. On page 626, however, Schweitzer and colleagues report finding an even larger number of protein fragments from an 80-million-year-old fossil from a duck-billed dinosaur, or hadrosaur, known as Brachylophosaurus canadensis.
“This will either be nothing or the biggest revolution in paleontology ever,” says Tom Kaye, a paleontologist at the Burke Museum in Seattle, Washington, and a critic of the original T. rex study.
Service went on to say that
“Collagen, the principal protein in connective tissue,
is rarely found in fossils more than a few hundred thousand
years old.” Taking five as a few, that means this
discovery would require believing it has lasted 160 times as long.
In response to criticisms of the 2005 paper, Schweitzer’s
team took extra care in the extraction and analysis of the specimen.
They used sterilized instruments to extract the bone samples and
rushed them to the lab in sealed jars. Two independent groups
analyzed the samples. “Both groups then independently
performed biochemical and antibody-binding studies that
showed evidence of collagen as well
as laminin and elastin, two proteins
found in blood vessels,” Service reported. In addition,
two independent teams used better mass spectrometry methods, and both
confirmed the presence of collagen. One of the specialists,
John Asara of Harvard Medical School, said, “This proves the
first study was not a one-hit wonder.”
What will critics say now? Service ended by quoting Martin
McIntosh of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, a
critic of the first study. McIntosh appeared uneasy with the
implications. “I’m not saying it’s true,”
he said, holding out hope for an alternate explanation. “But
I cannot right now make a plausible argument that it’s not
true.” He added, “The door is closing on
plausible alternatives.”
The original
paper primarily documented the details of the extraction and
analysis. Chris Organ (Harvard) also performed a phylogenetic
analysis, indicating enough primary material was available for
comparison. Despite the press release’s confidence that
the proteins showed a link to birds, the data presented in the paper
was more ambiguous and required some tweaking to produce a tree.3
That, however, is what Science seemed to emphasize,
stating in the summary that “Analysis of well-preserved tissues
from an 80-million-year-old hadrosaur supports the
dinosaur-bird relationship.”
Here’s
how the original paper ended its announcement of replicated results
that show the material is endogenous (original with the bone).
With appropriate scientific caution, they listed the evidence
pointing to the confirmation of the hypothesis that the protein
fragments once were part of a living dinosaur:
The hypothesis that endogenous proteins can persist across geological time, as first reported for T. rex (MOR 1125), was met with appropriate skepticism. However, the inclusion of additional sequence data from extant reptiles and B. canadensis strengthens the hypothesis that the molecular signal is preserved at least to the Late Cretaceous.
The submicron differences in texture (Fig. 1 and fig. S1), elemental differentiation, sub-“cellular” inclusions in osteocytes and vessels, identification of the posttranslational Pro-OH modification not produced by microbes, differential binding of antibodies by both in situ and immunoblot studies, collagen protein sequences, and phylogenetic analyses do not support a microbial origin for either these microstructures or peptide fragments. Coupled with evidence for cross-linking and unusual chemical modifications, the congruence of evidence strongly supports an endogenous origin for this material. The most parsimonious explanation, thus far unfalsified, is thatoriginal molecules persist in some Cretaceous dinosaur fossils. Still unknown is the chemistry behind such preservation.
The paper also includes photographs of structures that resemble cells. While they were cautious not to call them cells, they sure look like the real thing. They used various lines of evidence to rule out bacterial contamination.4 This indicates the protein studied with mass spectrometry was not relegated to isolated fragments, but was retained in original cellular structures. Were these cells really 80 million years old?
1.
Schweitzer, Zheng, Organ, Avci, Sui, Freimark, Lebleu, Duncan, Vander
Heiden, Neveu, Lane, Cottrell, Horner, Cantley, Kalluri and Asara,
“Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the
Campanian Hadrosaur B.
canadensis,” Science,
1 May 2009: Vol. 324. no. 5927, pp. 626-631, DOI:
10.1126/science.1165069c.
2. Robert F. Service,
“Paleontology: ‘Protein’ in 80-Million-Year-Old
Fossil Bolsters Controversial T.
rex Claim,” Science,
1 May 2009: Vol. 324. no. 5927, p. 578, DOI:
10.1126/science.324_578.
3. Excerpt from (1): “Under
a majority-rule
criterion to building
a consensus tree,
Dinosauria (the group containing the two extinct dinosaurs and the
two birds) collapsed into a
three-way polytomy.
Removing T.
rex from
the phylogeny resulted in a three-way polytomy as well. The
amount of missing
data in B.
canadensis and T.
rex sequences
relative to extant samples resulted in relatively
low resolution within
Dinosauria, but even so, the phylogenetic relationship of
recovered B.
canadensis sequences supports the
species’ placement within
Archosauria, closer to
birds than Alligator. However,
on the basis of well-established morphological analyses,
we predict that T.
rex is more
closely related to birds than
it is to the ornithischian hadrosaur B.
canadensis. Despite
ambiguity within
Dinosauria, obvious phylogenetic signal resides within recovered
collagen sequences, supporting endogeneity (fig. S11).”
4.
“Ovoid red
‘cells’ with
long filipodia, similar
in morphology to extant osteocytes,
were embedded in or associated with white matrix (Fig. 1J and fig.
S1) or vessels (Fig. 1H). In some cases, these were attached
by their filipodia to adjacent cells (Fig.
1J, inset), forming aninterconnecting
network as in extant bone.
The cells
contain internal microstructures suggestive of nuclei.
Red filipodia extend from cell bodies into the white fibrous matrix
(Fig. 1J and fig. S1), reflecting
original chemical differences at submicron levels between cells and
matrixand inconsistent
with recent microbial invasion (7).
Under FESEM (10), B.
canadensis osteocytes and
filipodia (Fig. 1K) are similar
in morphology, surface texture, and size to
extant ostrich osteocytes isolated from bone digests (Fig. 1L) (1, 2,
13, 14).”
It sounds like this will clinch the case. There’s no way this blood protein could be 80 million years old. The evolutionists are just saying it is because they cannot bear the thought of recent dinosaurs causing their millions of years scenario to come crashing down. Without the millions of years, Darwinism is dead, dead, dead.
Notice that it is not the creationists making these announcements but a secular research team and secular, anti-creationist news sources. Combine this announcement with the next entry below, and it appears that two centuries of scientific doubts about the Bible’s timescale are over. What are you waiting for?
Next headline on: Fossils • Dinosaurs • Dating Methods
Are Secular Geologists Ready to Consider a Global Flood?
paper in the Annual
Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences suggests that some of
them are re-evaluating the role of “megafloods” in earth
history. Some megafloods might be considered as “global
planetary phenomena.”
Author
Victor R. Baker was not thinking of Noah but of a more recent fellow,
J Harlen Bretz (see 07/25/2008).
In his paper, “The Channeled Scabland: A Retrospective”
in the May 2009 Annual
Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences,1 he
retold the story of the brave geologist who bucked the established
and proposed an “outrageous hypothesis” for the scarred
landscape of eastern Washington state. His 1927 proposal that
an ice-age megaflood scoured the extensive channel network in a
matter of days was met with scorn and derision. Baker wrote,
“the geological community largely
resisted his bold hypothesis for decades,
despite an enthusiastic, eloquent defense thereof” –
Bretz was finally vindicated in the 1960s and his theory is the new
consensus.
Baker clearly states the reason for the
rejection of Bretz’s hypothesis. Geologists would not
even consider such extensive processes, because their worldview
assumptions could not accommodate them:
The prolonged nature of the Spokane Flood controversy arose in part because of the adherence of many geologists to substantive and epistemological presumptions of uniformitarianism (see sidebar) that were erroneously thought to underpin their science (Baker 1998). According to a common, mistaken application of the uniformitarian principle, cataclysmic processes, like those responsible for the origin of the Channeled Scabland, wereconsidered to be unsuitable topics for scientific investigation. To counter this presumption of uniformitarianism, Bretz could only provide meticulously described field evidence for inspection by those willing to seriously consider it. The eventual triumph of his hypothesis, against its initially antagonistic reception, set the stage for the resurgence of a new understanding of geological catastrophism, which is perhaps most prominent today in the acknowledged role of impact cratering in Earth’s history.
Baker has just said that the majority consensus can be wrong – for decades – because of worldview bias, or epistemological presumptions (i.e., presuppositions about what we know and how we know it). These presumptions do not arise from the scientific evidence, but in spite of it: Bretz had the evidence, but his colleagues refused to see it, because in their worldview, such topics were “unsuitable ... for scientific investigation.” This is not a discovery from science. It is a statement of philosophy about science. In the sidebar on uniformitarianism to which Baker referred, he said this:
Uniformitarianism is a regulative principle or doctrine in geology that unfortunately sometimes conflates (a) the pragmatic application of modern process studies to understanding the past (actualism) with (b) substantive presumptions that deny effectiveness to cataclysmic events. As recognized by William Whewell, who invented the term, meaning b is contrary to the logic of science (Baker 1998).2
(For
information about Whewell, see the June 2007 Scientist
of the Month.) Most of Baker’s paper reviews the
evidence in the Channeled Scablands for a megaflood when Lake
Missoula breached its ice dam, sending a million cubic feet of water
per second towards the Pacific. The evidence includes coulees,
cataracts, gravel fans and bars, streamlined residual hills and
islands, giant current ripples in the shape of dunes, and large
isolated boulders. He discussed the high-energy processes that
left this evidence: vertical vortices (kolks), plucking and
cavitation, bedrock erosion and transport. “The scabland
megaflooding exhibited phenomenal
sediment transport capability,
as evidenced by the boulders that were entrained by the flow,”
he said. He showed a picture of an 18m boulder that was
transported 10 km by the raging waters. The car beside the rock
looks small by comparison.
What is the lesson of J
Harlen Bretz and the Spokane Flood controversy? Baker discussed
this in the ending paragraphs, entitled, “Megafloods
as Global Planetary Phenomena”.
Have geologists been misapplying uniformitarian presumptions,
ignoring evidence for megafloods all around them, on the earth –
and even on Mars?
Bretz thought the landforms of the Channeled Scabland to be unique (Bretz 1928a). “Nowhere in the world is there known or suspected,” he wrote (Bretz 1959, p. 56), “a story at all comparable to what we read from the scabland forms.” He reasoned that its uniqueness might make his Spokane Flood hypothesis more acceptable to those who held to the generalization that landscapes are created by the prolonged action of noncataclysmic processes. Inrecent years, however, cataclysmic flood landscapes with many similarities to the Channeled Scabland have increasingly been documented in many parts of the world (Baker 1997, 2002, 2007). Spectacular examples of GCRs [giant current ripples] are found in central Asia (Baker et al. 1993, Carling 1996, Rudoy 2005), along with immense gravel bars and scour marks (Rudoy & Baker 1993, Carling et al. 2002, Herget 2005). Megaflood streamlined hill morphologies occur in the glacial lake spillway channels of central North America (Kehew & Lord 1986) and on the floor of the English Channel (Gupta et al. 2007). Most surprising to Bretz, however, would be the discovery of scabland-like morphologies on Mars (Baker & Milton 1974; Baker 1982, 2001; Komatsu & Baker 2007).
In addition to stimulating discoveries of cataclysmic flood landscapes, studies of the patterns, forms, and processes evident in the Channeled Scabland have informed understanding of processes that occur at smaller scales in modern bedrock channels that are impacted by extreme, high-energy floods (e.g., Baker 1977, 1984; Baker & Pickup 1987; Baker & Kochel 1988; Baker & Kale 1998). Slackwater deposition by scabland flooding at the mouths of various valleys tributary to the Cheney-Palouse scabland channels (Bretz 1929, Patton et al. 1979) was used to infer flow depths along those channels (Figure 10). This methodology proved to be critical in stimulating the development of that form of paleoflood hydrology that utilizes paleostage indicators for the reconstruction of relatively recent (late Holocene) floods, thereby increasing our understanding the frequencies of rare, modern high-magnitude floods (Baker 1987, 2006, 2008b). Indeed, one can envision a kind of investigation that inverts the usual reasoning process whereby studies of common, small-scale processes are extrapolated to the domain of less common, unobserved large-scale processes.
What should future geologists do? Baker ended by discussing future challenges to understanding the Channeled Scablands. One problem, for instance, is that the volume of water stored in hypothetical Lake Missoula seems “insufficient to account for the indicated levels of maximum inundation throughout the Channeled Scabland and adjacent area.” One possibility is “subglacial outburst flooding from under the Cordilleran Ice Sheet,” he suggested. Details aside, Baker had a concluding remark about bold hypotheses, the nature of scientific inquiry and understanding, and the need to think outside the box:
In retrospect, studies of the Channeled Scabland might be viewed as concerned with the unique origins of a single landscape. However, this remarkable landscape was not studied to test a preexisting hypothesis or theory(e.g., erosion and deposition by high-energy megaflooding). Instead, discoveries about the Channeled Scabland are leading scientific inquiry to the recognition of what can now be seen as related phenomena, such that a completely new theory is required. The resulting rich set of research opportunities traces back to a single imaginative hypothesis proposed in the 1920s by J Harlen Bretz. Though these opportunities may now be pursued with techniques that to Bretz would have seemed almost magical, the most important pathway to advancing understanding remains that which is best exemplified by Bretz’s most lasting contribution: informed and insightful geological fieldwork.
1.
Baker, VR. The Channeled Scabland: A Retrospective. Annual
Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
Vol. 37: 393-411 (Volume publication date May 2009;
doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.061008.134726).
2. Baker VR. 1998.
Catastrophism and uniformitarianism: Logical roots and current
relevance. In Lyell:
The Past Is the Key to the Present,
ed. DJ Blundell, AC Scott, Spec. Publ. 143, pp. 171–82. London:
Geol. Soc.
Hallelujah! A secular geologist finally gets it. Geological science is not always driven by evidence, but by presumptions. This is one of the most remarkable papers from a secular journal in recent memory. It contains lessons for history of science, philosophy of science, rhetoric of science, and the interplay of logic and empiricism.
Before continuing, let the reader understand that Victor Baker is not doubting long ages and evolution. He believes, for instance, that multiple flooding events from Lake Missoula occurred over many thousands of years, the last occurring about 14,500 years ago. It would be unfair to portray Baker as supporting creationist Flood geology. Baker would undoubtedly be angry to be tarred with such associations. Nevertheless, it is certainly fair to take the same principles and methods he advocated and think outside his box, too. Maybe he is on the right track but doesn’t go far enough.
Consider first the empirical evidence. Baker evaluated evidence of high-energy transport processes that are certainly not uniformitarian. Creationist Flood geologists date the Spokane Floods as post-diluvial (i.e., after the global Flood of Noah’s day). The same kind of evidence of high-energy transport, though, is visible throughout the deeper layers of the Grand Canyon. The Great Unconformity, for instance, displays a sudden scouring of the top of basement rock, on which sit most of the sedimentary layers. This Great Unconformity is arguably a worldwide phenomenon. So here is prima facie evidence for a global megaflood in earth history. Right on top of this flat surface (where evolutionists put an imaginary time gap of a billion years) lie the sedimentary layers of the Tapeats Sandstone. In the Tapeats are huge boulders, suggesting the same high-energy transport Baker inferred in the Scablands – not slow deposition over millions of years. The Tapeats, and layers above all the way into the Redwall, show soft sediment deformation in places. Fault lines extend all the way from bottom to top. Most of the contacts between the formations are flat, suggesting there were no time gaps between them. Evolutionists invent time gaps of 10 million years, 60 million years, even 100 million years between some of these formations, just to keep them in sync with their evolutionary assumptions, but you can see with your own eyes that the layers are flat, like a layered cake, with no evidence of the passage of time between them. These are other strong evidences of megaflood far exceeding anything in the Channeled Scablands. To the unbiased mind, the same kind of inferences made at Scablands can be extrapolated at Grand Canyon to infer a megaflood of global proportions. Genesis 6-9 then can be re-examined as a historical record, not myth. It left empirical evidence of its power.
Consider also the philosophical and logical lessons of this paper. For decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, uniformitarian geologists had blinders on. Their worldview prevented them from seeing evidence that was there for the looking. This should be remembered when creationists are criticized for having “religious motivations” for their scientific models. That criticism cuts both ways. Terry Mortenson, in The Great Turning Point, documented how it was anti-Biblical worldview bias that turned Lyell, Hutton and the other founders of uniformitarianism into apologists for billions of years. Quotes from Lyell show he had a conspiratorial attitude, with a goal of turning the universities against the Scriptural geologists. Like Darwin, these moyboys (pushers of “millions of years, billions of years”) did not “discover” their theories in the data; they instituted a framework for interpreting the data (04/29/2009). This framework served (and continues to serve) to insulate their evolutionary philosophy from falsification. They have put blinders on with their own biased hands.
Baker praised J Harlen Bretz for providing “informed and insightful fieldwork” in support of his bold hypothesis. It took years for that fieldwork to cut through the dogma of the uniformitarians, and now, neo-catastrophism is enjoying a renaissance after 150 years of dogma. Guess what: creationist geologists have been doing “informed and insightful fieldwork” for decades, too. It doesn’t get seen much by the mainstream secular scientific societies, because they have a vested interest in maintaining their evolutionary worldview from serious challenge. But it is good work. You can find it in published journals from the Creation Research Society, Creation Ministries International, Institute for Creation Research, Answers in Genesis and Center for Scientific Creation, among others. You can also see the Flood evidence with your own eyes by taking one of Tom Vail’s rafting trips down the Grand Canyon (see Canyon Ministries; highly recommended for fun as well as education).
Victor Baker did not propose a global Flood like that described in Genesis, but he did bring in some much-needed fresh air into the discussion about how science should be conducted. He pointed out the propensity for worldview bias, even among the leading geologists of the world, that can blind them from evidence for half a century. Nothing in his paper advocates a global megaflood – but nothing rules it out, either. The principles and historical lessons he advocated should liberate those not beholden to blinding uniformitarian presumptions to ask, boldly, “Noah’s Flood – why not?”
http://www.massspec.net/index.aspx?ID=93578 & BIOCOMPARE
Thermo Fisher MS Instruments Used by Harvard University to Identify Proteins in Dinosaur Fossils and Cancer Pathways.
Thermo Scientific LTQ™ linear ion trap &
LTQ Orbitrap XL™ used to extract and sequence tiny pieces of collagen protein from dinosaurs.
Wyckoff, RWG: The Biochemistry of Animal Fossils (Scientechnica, Bristol, 1972)
According to Wyckoff, it had long been taken for granted that proteins could persist for geological periods of time and the first microscope photos of intact collagen fibers came as a surprise (p. 53). The first conclusions from these first studies was, that the amino acids have not been altered in more than 100 millions of radiometric years and that the proteins were not anymore simpler than those now being produced. Wyckoff writes (p. 81):
"It is significant for the future study of still older material that many of the Jurassic bones have retained as much proteins as the younger Cretaceous. These analyses support and extend the indications obtained with the younger Pliocene and Miocene specimens that the amount of protein in old fossils declines only slowly with age… Though invertebrate shells rather quickly lose a large part of their original protein, the oldest yet examined have retained sufficient quantities for study. It is a noteworthy fact that after an initial fall the amounts retained in both vertebrate and invertebrate fossils do not show a futher steady decline with age; clearly these residues are so stable that they may confidently be sought in the ooldest obtainable specimes." (Emphasis added.)
See http://www.biokemia.fi/Mryr.htm
SPECIMEN IDENTIFICATION
THIS appendix lists the fossil
specimens to which reference is
made in the text. It states,
after this laboratory's identifying
numbers, only enough
information to make intelligible their use
in text, tables, and
figure legends. In most cases common names
have been employed.
Where these fossils have formed part of
published work further
details can be found in the appropriate
articles.
Many of the
specimens have been collected from nearby local-
ities by members
of the laboratory staff. Other persons have also
contributed
specimens that have been invaluable in furthering
the work. We
especial1y wish to express gratitude to the fol1ow-
ing: J. R.
Macdonald and the Los Angeles County Museum of
Natural History;
J. A. Jensen and the Earth Sciences Museum
of Brigham Young
University; E. H. Colbert and the American
Museum of Natural
History; R. Dughi and the Musee d'Histoire
Naturel1e d'
Aix-en-Provence ; M. Dawson and the Carnegie
Museum (Pittsburgh).
V631: Bradysaurus (primitive reptile) bone fragment, Perlnian.
V633: Desmostylus tooth fragment, Miocene, Monocline Ridge, Ca1i-
fornia.
V6351: Plesippus (early horse) tooth,
Plio-Pleistocene, City Canyon,
Texas.
V6383: Turtle scute
fragments, Eocene, Tabemacle Butte, Wyoming.
V63 101: Dicynodont
(reptilian) bone, Triassic, Karroo Beds, South
Mrica.
V63184:
Stegomastodon molar, Pleistocene, Safford, Arizona.
V63210: Equus
(horse) bone, Pleistocene, Safford, Arizona.
V63217:
Horse molar, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Ca1ifomia.
V63218:
Bison tooth, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia.
V63220:
Panthera atrox tooth, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Ca1ifomia.
V63233: Horse bone, Pliocene, Wikieup, Arizona.
V63234:
Mastodon bone, Pleistocene, Benson, Arizona.
V63244 : Ungulate
bone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia. V63247: Canis dirus
{wolf) bone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Ca1i-
fomia.
V63289:
Camel bone, Pleistocene, Benson, Arizona.
V63291: Ungulate bone,
Pleistocene, Benson, Arizona.
V6329S: Ungulate bone, Pleistocene,
Benson, Arizona. V63378: Mastodon bone, Pleistocene, Benson, Arizona.
V63421: Unidentified bone scrap, Pleistocene, Benson, Arizona.
V6344 7: Unidentified bone scrap, Pleistocene, Benson, Arizona.
V634S6: Mastodon tusk,
Pleistocene, Benson, Arizona.
V63477 : Ungulate bone scrap,
Pliocene, Wikieup, Arizona. V63481: Ungulate bone scrap, Pliocene,
Wikieup, Arizona. V63486: Ungulate bone scrap, Pliocene, Wikieup,
Arizona. V6349S: Ungulate bone scrap, Pliocene, Wikieup, Arizona.
V63S09: Ungulate bone scrap, Pliocene, Wikieup, Arizona. V63S26:
Ungulate bone scrap, Pliocene, Wikieup, Arizona. V63S39: Ungulate
bone scrap, Pliocene, Wikieup, Arizona.
V63S62: Ungulate bone
scrap, Pliocene, Walnut Grove, Arizona. V63636: Phytosaur tooth,
Triassic, Petrified Forest, Arizona. V63689: Bones, cow, Recent,
Arizona desert, sun-dried.
163693: Venus campechiensis,
Pleistocene, Cape May, New Jersey. V63724: Sagenodus copeanus (lung
fish) bone, Pennsylvanian, Kansas. V642: Horse bone, Pleistocene,
Rancho La Brea, Califomia.
V648: Ground sloth tooth, Pleistocene,
Rancho La Brea, Califomia. V6410: Ungulate tooth, Pleistocene, Egypt.
V6416: Mammal bone, Oligocene, Egypt.
V6417: Brontotherium tooth,
Oligocene, White River Farm, Nebraska. V641 13: Pristis (sawfish,
ray) bone fragment, Eocene, Egypt. V64117: Sirenian rib, Miocene,
Califomia.
V64118: Mammoth tusk, Pleistocene, Irvington,
California.
V64142: Pristis (sawfish, ray) bone fragment, Eocene,
Egypt.
V6414S: Felis atrox tooth, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea,
Califomia. V64148:
Smilodon (californicus) bone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea,
Ca1ifomia.
V64149: Smilodon bone, Pleistocene, Rancho La
Brea, Califomia. V641SI: Ground sloth tooth, Miocene, Colombia.
V64184: Gopher bone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, California.
V6418S: Gopher jaw bone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia.
V6SS: Camel bone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, California.
V6S6:
Smilodon bone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia. V6S7: Bison
bone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia.
V6S8: Ground sloth
bone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia. V6S9: Camel jawbone,
Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia.
V6S II: Canis dirus
(wolf) jawbone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia.
V6S12:
Coyote jawbone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia. V6S13:
Panthera atrox jawbone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Cali-
fornia.
V6SIS: H~rse bone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia.
V6SI9: Dinosaur bone, Cretaceous, Texas.
V6S2I: Bear bone,
Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia.
V6S22: Panthera atrox
bone, Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia. V6S24: Mastodon tooth,
Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, California. V6S26: Bison bone,
Pleistocene, Rancho La Brea, Califomia. V6S28: Horse bone, Pliocene,
Hagennan, Idaho.
V662: Sphenacodon (Pelycosaur reptile) bone,
Permian, New Mexico. V664:
Diadectes (primitive reptile) bone, Permian, Seymour, Texas. V666:
Mosasaur (marine lizard) bone, Cretaceous, Niabraro Fonna-
tion
(Fm), Kansas.
V66IO: Therapsid reptilian bone, Triassic, Chinle
Fm, Arizona. V66I3: Mosasaur (marine lizard) vertebra, Cretaceous,
Panoche Hills,
Califomia.
V6643: Manunoth tooth, Pleistocene,
Tuba City, Arizona.
V67I: Phytosaur sku1l bones, Triassic, Chinle
Fm, Arizona.
V674: Sauropod dinosaur bones, Jurassic, Morrison
Fm, Wyoming. V67S: Hadrosaur (duck billed) dinosaur bones,
Cretaceous, Oldman
Fm, Alberta, Canada.
V672I: Bison bone,
Hell Gap, Wyoming.
V673 I: Manunoth bone, Early man, Union
Pacific Mammoth Site, Wyoming.
V6733: Manunoth tusk, Early man,
Union Pacific Mammoth Site, Wyoming.
V6734: Bison bone, Early
man, Olsen-Chubbuck, Colorado. V6783 : Horse teeth, Pliocene,
Wikieup, Arizona. V6788: Human femur, Modem.
I67II4: Pecten
madisonius, Miocene, Jamestown Ferry, Virginia. V67II6: Whale bones,
Miocene, Jamestown Ferry, Virginia.
V67I38: Sauropod dinosaur
limb bone, Jurassic, Morrison Fm, Wyoming.
V67I4o: Dinosaur bone
scrap, Cretaceous, Lance Fm, Montana. V67I42: Dinosaur bone scrap,
Cretaceous, Edmonton Fm, Montana. V67I46: Dinosaur toe bone,
Cretaceous, Lance Fm, Montana. V67I47: Dinosaur toe bone, Cretaceous,
Lance Fm, Montana. V67I48: Dinosaur sacrum, Jurassic, Morrison Fm,
Wyoming.
V67ISO: Diplodocus dinosaur bones, Jurassic, Morrison
Fm, Wy- oming.
V67IS4: Mosasaur (marine lizard) bone scrap,
Cretaceous, Niobrara Fm, Kansas.
V67IS5: Mosasaur (marine lizard)
bone scrap, Cretaceous, Niobrara Fm, Kansas.
V67IS6: Crocodilian
bone, Cretaceous, Greensand Fm, New Jersey. V67I62: Mosasaur (marine
lizard) bones, Cretaceous, Niobrara Fm,
Kansas.
V68I6:
Diceratherium (rhinoceros) tooth, Miocene, Agate Springs, Nebraska.
V6820: Merycodus (prongbuck) bones, Plicene, Valentine Fm,
Nebraska.
V6828: Teleost fish skeleton, Jurassic, Antofagasta
Province, Chile.
V6835: Tortoise carapace, Oligocene, Brule Fm,
South Dakota.
V6837: Hadrosaur (duck bill dinosaur) tendon,
Cretaceous, Hell Creek Fm, Montana.
V6843: Dinosaur ( ?)
egg-shells, Cretaceous, North Horn Fm, Utah. V6844 : Dinosaur ( ?)
egg-shells, Cretaceous, Cedar Mountain Fm,
Utah.
V6846:
Aepyornis egg-shell, Pleistocene, Madagascar . V6850: Garfish scales,
Eocene, locality unknown.
V6851: Dinosaur toe bone, Cretaceous,
Lance Fm, Wyoming. ~.;,,; V6852: Dinosaur bone fragment, Jurassic,
Morrison Fm, Wyoming. ~':;)j;
V6857: Eupelor (amphibian) vertebra, Triassic, Chin1e Fm, Arizona.
V6860: Dinosaur tooth,
Cretaceous.
V6867: Crocodilian bone, Cretaceous, Greensand Fm,
New Jersey. V6869: Dinosaur bones, Cretaceous, Laramie Beds, Montana.
V6877: Redwinged blackbird egg, Recent.
V6878: Great blue heron
egg-shells, Recent.
V6879: Black-necked stilt egg-shells, Recent.
V6880: Magpie egg-shells, Recent.
V6884: Human tooth, about 2000
years old.
V6885: Basiliscus plumbifrons (basilisk) egg-shell,
Recent. V6887: Rhinoceros iguana egg-shells, Recent.
V6888:
Gopherus agassizi (desert tortoise) egg-shells, Recent.
V6889:
Testudo elephantopus (Galapagos tortoise) egg-shells, Recent. V6890:
Crocodylus johnsoni egg-shell, Recent.
V6891: Malacocherus
tornieri (Mrican soft-shelled tortoise) egg-shells, Recent.
V6893:
Alligator mississippiensis egg-shells, Recent.
V6894: Dromiceius
novae hollandiae (emu) egg-shells, Recent, Aus- tra1ia.
V6896:
Casuarius unappendiculatus ( cassowary) egg-shells, Recent, Island of
Salawatti.
V6897: Struthio camelus australis ( ostrich)
egg-shells, Recent, Mrica.
V6898: Alligator mississippiensis
egg.shells, Recent, Florida. V68101: Dinosaur egg.shells, Cretaceous,
Gobi Desert.
V68108: Ungulate tooth fragments, Pliocene, Wikieup,
Arizona.
V681 12: Gallus gallus (chicken) egg-shells, Recent,
Tucson, Arizona. V681 13: Horse tooth fragments, Pliocene, Wikieup,
Arizona. V696: Ptychodus (skate) tooth, Cretaceous, South Dakota.
V697: Taeniolabis (primitive mammal) teeth, Palaeocene, Patterson
.
Site, Wyoming.
V6912: Rhinoceros teeth, Oligocene, Brule
Fm, Wyoming.
V6931: Aepyornis egg-shells, Pleistocene,
Madagascar.
16932: Crassostrea virginica, Pleistocene, Horry
County, Carolina.
16933: Ostrea sculpturata, Pliocene, Myrtle
Beach, South Carolina. 16935: Ostrea ventilabum, Oligocene,
Klein-Spauwen, Belgium.
16937: Ostrea johnsoni, Eocene, Jackson,
Clarke County , Alabama. 16938: Ostrea compressirostra, Palaeocene,
Potomac Creek, Virginia.
16941: Gryphaea convexa, Cretaceous,
Cream Ridge, New Jersey. V6946: Ornitholithus arcuatus egg-shells,
Eocene, Bassin-du-Rhone,
St. Antonin-sur-Bayon, France.
16954:
Ostrea sp. (oysters), Miocene, Calvert Beach, Mary1and. 16959: Pecten
eboreus, Pliocene, Horry County, South Carolina. 16960: Pecten
crassicardo, Miocene, Cammati Canyon, California. 16961: Chlamys
madisonius, Miocene, Calvert Beach, Maryland. 16962: Glycymeris
americana, Pliocene, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. 16966: Cardita
planicosta, Eocene, Brack1esham Fm, England.
16989:
Ostrea sp., Pleistocene, Huatabampito, Sinaloa, Mexico. 16990: Arca
pacifica, Pleistocene, Huatabampito, Sinaloa, Mexico. 16994:
Dinocardium robustum, Pleistocene, Horry County, South
Carolina.
16995: Chione morsitans, Pleistocene, Horry County, South
Carolina. 16996: Saxidomus giganteus, Pleistocene, San Mateo County,
Cali-
fornia.
16997: Mercenaria carolinensis, Pleistocene,
Horry County, South Carolina.
16998: Mercenaria sp., Pleistocene,
Wailes Bluff, Maryland. 16999: Dosinia discus, Pleistocene, Virginia
Beach, Virginia.
169100: Lunatia sp. (gastropod), Pleistocene,
Virginia Beach, Virginia. 169101: Busycon carica (gastropod),
Pleistocene, New Bem, North
Carolina.
1709: Pseudopecten
equivalvis, Jurassic, Block1ey, Gloucestershire, England.
17018:
Corals (coelenterates), Pleistocene, Fort Myers, Florida. 17021:
Diploria strigosa (coelenterate), Pleistocene, Miami oölite,
Florida Keys.
17022: Siderastrea sp. (coelenterate),
Pleistocene, Miami oölite, Florida Keys.
17027: Pecten sp.,
Pleistocene, Florida.
17029: Aequipecten circularis, Pliocene,
Kettleman Hills, California. 17030: Pecten bellus, Pliocene, Santa
Barbara, Califomia.
17031: Chlamys eboreus, Pliocene, Myrtle
Beach, South Carolina. 17032 : Pecten byramensis, Oligocene,
Vicksburg, Mississippi. 17033: Pecten texanus, Cretaceous, Tarrant
County, Texas.
V7034:
Ornithopod dinosaur egg-shells, Cretaceous, Bassin d'Aix-en-
Provence, Roques Hautes, France.
V7035: Sauropod dinosaur
egg-shells, Cretaceous, Bassin d' Aix-en- Provence, Trets, France.
V7036: Theropod dinosaur egg-shells, Cretaceous, Bassin d'
Aix-en- Provence, Rousset, France.
17046: Argopecten
alquisulcatus, Pleistocene, San Pedro, Califomia. 17048: Pecten
bellus, Pleistocene, Coyote Hills, Califomia.
17049: Pecten
eldridgei, Pleistocene, McKittrick County, Califomia. 17050: Pecten
latiauratus, Pleistocene, P1aya del Rey, Califomia. 17074: Arca
pacifica, Recent, San Felipe, Baja Califomia, Mexico. 17080:
Chione gnidia, Pleistocene, Huatabampito, Sinaloa, Mexico. 1711:
Pinctada sp., Recent, Japan.