@article{e66454e0373e4cca86bb7f24f587d7c8,
title = "Cretaceous dinosaur bone contains recent organic material and provides an environment conducive to microbial communities",
abstract = "Fossils were thought to lack original organic molecules, but chemical analyses show that some can survive. Dinosaur bone has been proposed to preserve collagen, osteocytes, and blood vessels. However, proteins and labile lipids are diagenetically unstable, and bone is a porous open system, allowing microbial/molecular flux. These {\textquoteleft}soft tissues{\textquoteright} have been reinterpreted as biofilms. Organic preservation versus contamination of dinosaur bone was examined by freshly excavating, with aseptic protocols, fossils and sedimentary matrix, and chemically/biologically analyzing them. Fossil {\textquoteleft}soft tissues{\textquoteright} differed from collagen chemically and structurally; while degradation would be expected, the patterns observed did not support this. 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing revealed that dinosaur bone hosted an abundant microbial community different from lesser abundant communities of surrounding sediment. Subsurface dinosaur bone is a relatively fertile habitat, attracting microbes that likely utilize inorganic nutrients and complicate identification of original organic material. There exists potential post-burial taphonomic roles for subsurface microorganisms.",
author = "Saitta, {Evan T.} and Renxing Liang and Lau, {Maggie C.Y.} and Brown, {Caleb M.} and Longrich, {Nicholas R.} and Kaye, {Thomas G.} and Novak, {Ben J.} and Salzberg, {Steven L.} and Norell, {Mark A.} and Abbott, {Geoffrey D.} and Dickinson, {Marc R.} and Jakob Vinther and Bull, {Ian D.} and Brooker, {Richard A.} and Peter Martin and Paul Donohoe and Knowles, {Timothy D.J.} and Penkman, {Kirsty E.H.} and Tullis Onstott",
note = "Funding Information: Part of this work was financially supported by the Scott Vertebrate Paleontology Fund from the Department of Geosciences, Princeton University. Many thanks to Wei Wang and Jessica Wiggins (Princeton University, Genomics Core Facility) for 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, Paul Mona-ghan (University of Bristol) for assistance in preparing samples for radiocarbon AMS, Sheila Taylor (University of York) for assistance in preparing the samples for HPLC, Kirsty High (University of York) for provision of the comparator sheep bone sample, Kentaro Chiba (University of Toronto) for assistance in the quarry of BB180 and for taking photographs, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology for accessioning the fossils collected in Dinosaur Provincial Park and assisting in the paperwork allowing for export and study, and Adam Maloof (Princeton University), Jasmina Wiemann (Yale University), and Michael Buckley (University of Manchester) for helpful discussion. The Natural Environment Research Councial, UK, provided partial funding of the mass spectrometry facilities at Bristol (Contract No. R8/H10/63). Amino acid analyses were undertaken thanks to support to KP from the Leverhulme Trust (PLP-2012–116). Gallus gallus domesticus (Public Domain Dedication 1.0, https:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode), Odontapsidae (Dmitry Bogdanov, vectorised by T Michael Keesey, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported, https://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode, CC BY 3.0), and Centrosaurus apertus (credit: Andrew A Farke, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode, CC BY 3.0, modified in Figure 5) silhouettes were obtained from phylopic.org. Funding Information: Princeton University Scott Vertebrate Paleontology Fund to Renxing Liang, Maggie CY Lau, Tullis Onstott. Leverhulme Trust PLP-2012-116 to Marc R Dickinson, Kirsty E H Penkman. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Saitta et al.",
year = "2019",
month = jun,
doi = "10.7554/eLife.46205.001",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "8",
journal = "eLife",
issn = "2050-084X",
publisher = "eLife Sciences Publications",
}