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Pixels Subscribers only Secrets of decades-long Golden Owl treasure hunt to be revealed Lifestyle Inside Chanel's French leather workshops Culture Subscribers only The marvelous bronzes of Angkor on display at the Musée Guimet in Paris a specialist in mining anthropology and the Arctic explains how Greenland intends to make use of the US president's interest in its natural resources and capitalize on it in the geopolitical arena Interview by Pascal Riché An anthropologist and researcher at the elite social sciences university Sciences Po's Center for International Studies (CERI) Pia Bailleul works on the subject of minerals in Greenland She explains in an interview how the mining issue is linked to the Greenlandic state's establishment and its process of seeking independence from Denmark The idea of buying Greenland has not been taken seriously by Greenlanders as Trump doesn't seem to consider them to be a nation capable of self-determination Yet this incident has put Greenlanders on the map of global energy transition needs at the center of the new geostrategic game made it clear that he intends to capitalize on Trump's interest in the country's natural resources in the geopolitical arena There is a very broad consensus on this among the population as it can be a way to solve problems of poverty and unemployment and offers prospects for young people – but also to prepare for independence American interest in natural resources has provided that the country's legal safeguards are respected These companies only perform exploration: They each have just one office and a few geologists and only one project that is seriously underway which is used to make mineral wool for insulation Greenland is still considered a "frontier zone," as it is known in industry jargon: A territory that is rich in minerals The economic and fiscal effects of this activity are [Greenlanders] will therefore need to build relationships of trust with the countries from which the capital will come You have 76.69% of this article left to read Lecture du Monde en cours sur un autre appareil Vous pouvez lire Le Monde sur un seul appareil à la fois Ce message s’affichera sur l’autre appareil Parce qu’une autre personne (ou vous) est en train de lire Le Monde avec ce compte sur un autre appareil Vous ne pouvez lire Le Monde que sur un seul appareil à la fois (ordinateur En cliquant sur « Continuer à lire ici » et en vous assurant que vous êtes la seule personne à consulter Le Monde avec ce compte Que se passera-t-il si vous continuez à lire ici Ce dernier restera connecté avec ce compte Vous pouvez vous connecter avec votre compte sur autant d’appareils que vous le souhaitez mais en les utilisant à des moments différents Nous vous conseillons de modifier votre mot de passe Votre abonnement n’autorise pas la lecture de cet article merci de contacter notre service commercial Home>Research & Environment: Postdoc Pia Bailleul Works on Mining in Greenland could you tell us a bit about your research background and your doctoral thesis I am an anthropologist working on the political and social issues relating to mining resources and activities in Greenland. This interest arose while I was completing my doctoral thesis in French entitled “National deposits and common lands : study of the legal geological and political reconfigurations of the treatment of Greenlandic soils and subsoils from the ethnography of the Kuannersuit mining project” (Gisements nationaux et terres communes : étude des reconfigurations juridiques géologiques et politiques des traitements des sols et des sous-sols groenlandais à partir de l'ethnographie du projet minier de Kuannersuit) conducted from 2017 to 2022 at Nanterre University during which I focused on rare earth projects and the social and political implications of developing this new resource You are currently working on mining projects in Greenland and their consequences for the territorialisation of the state and Greenland's relationship with Denmark Could you explain what you mean by the “frontier zone” and its implications for your research I approach the “frontier zone” as a phenomenon of spatial organisation driven by the will to exploit resources Whereas in many contexts the frontier zone is described in this way by external stakeholders who exploit resources to the point of exhaustion with no interest in the local population or the environment in Greenland it is a matter of a national orientation with a view to independence (through mining rents) the frontier zone is the result of negotiations between the mining companies that explore the subsoil and successive governments that use it for political purposes to grasp the space that this situation creates and the specific social and political implications that it poses for extractivism in the Arctic through the study of a case that presents the establishment of the frontier zone The Greenland frontier zone is still in the early stages of actual exploitation and studying it will help us understand how a mineral becomes a resource (stakeholders and therefore to follow the phenomenon of spatial composition as it develops How do you intend to use your postdoctoral stay at Sciences Po to further your research During my three years as a postdoc at the CERI and as part of the Bruno Latour Fund I intend to develop the geopolitical dimension of my work I am looking at the development of critical metals projects in Greenland with a view to understanding the impact of the European Green Deal and more specifically the “resilient” resource supply strategy on extraction in the Arctic and the way it is represented we will be looking more broadly at what this “green and polar frontier” can teach us about Europe’s energy “resilience” FocusElections & Democracy International Conflicts Europe & CIVICA Digital Transformations Environmental Transformations Follow UsNewsletters Twitter Instagram TikTok Facebook Linkedin Youtube Address / phone 27, rue Saint Guillaume - 75337 Paris Cedex 07 Phone: +33 (0)1 45 49 50 50 | +33 (0)1 42 22 31 26 we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links When Isabelle Moltzer’s parents reluctantly sold the Domaine de Bailleul in Normandy in 2011 “It took two months to move everything out.” What made it particularly traumatic was that the 50-hectare property had been in the family since the mid 16th century when its château was built by one of her ancestors Bertrand de Bailleul (he is said to have welcomed Mary “My attachment to the estate is visceral,” says Moltzer The terrace façade of the estate’s so-called Norman House, which was built in the 19th century. In the role not quite of Prince Charming, but rather a benevolent benefactor, is Ranga Brossais Doliger, who acquired the domaine in 2018. The previous owner, a Russian businessman, had more or less left it abandoned. The gardens were overgrown and the outbuildings in a state of dilapidation. “It was like the castle in Beauty and the Beast,” Brossais Doliger says insisting that he didn’t buy it to live there he simply wanted to restore it to its former glory and planned to rent the outbuildings as if I’d lived there in the past,” he recalls Intrigued to know more about its history, he made contact with Moltzer via Instagram and discovered she has a dual profession. A consummate cook, she organizes private and corporate dinners for clients such as shoe designer Christian Louboutin, brands like Dedar, Lalique, and Pierre Frey and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris she works as a decorator on projects that have included an 8,000-square-foot hôtel particulier in the French capital Brossais Doliger asked her to help him bring Bailleul back to life In the small sitting room, pillows in Décors Barbares fabrics sit on a corduroy sofa from Arthur Bruet. The tapestry covering the seat of the leather armchair was a gift from decorator Jacques Grange to Moltzer’s mother. They began with the Norman House, which dates to the second half of the 19th century, when it was used for accommodation and storage during a phase of extensive building work on the château itself. “It was like a worksite cabin for the time,” quips Moltzer. Her parents moved there in 1968 and were something of an It couple in French society had been a model for Coco Chanel; her charismatic father His pieces from the 1970s—many of which have been reissued—are wonderfully sleek and minimal; those created later from bronze are inspired by nature A number of originals can be found at the Norman House such as a turtle sculpture on the terrace or a floor lamp with articulated stems resembling bamboo stalks whose pride and joy was Bailleul’s still-intact 2,800-foot-long hornbeam maze Moltzer’s childhood memories are both happy and animated Her parents entertained the likes of Pierre Cardin and Georges Pompidou and she recalls spending hours combing the late French president’s enormous eyebrows by the pool Horses—including Dartmoor and New Forest ponies and Arabians—were also very present with up to a hundred housed in the majestic stables Brossais Doliger requested that the Norman House’s new decor be very much in keeping with that conjured by Moltzer’s parents Moltzer had conserved many of its former objects and furnishings in storage and despite the fact that the initial intent was to lease the house she decided to re-create the interior around them “I ask myself why I kept so many things,” she says I knew I’d need them again one day.” Many were of largely sentimental value including the pots and ceramics on the shelves in the informal dining room “I’d stare at them as a kid while eating steak mixed with fruit yogurt,” she recounts There were also numerous pieces of furniture including her father’s working table in the main sitting room Some items were relocated from her parents’ other homes such as the antique English metal stove from their Paris apartment in the drawing room while the Smyrna rug in the formal dining room was discovered rolled up in the stables at Bailleul A guest room’s bamboo cabinet and Venetian mirror were flea market finds. The small Napoleon III chair was bought at auction, and the bedside table stood in this bedroom during Moltzer’s childhood. she received an impromptu visit from Brossais Doliger he informed her that he’d had a change of mind He no longer planned to rent out the Norman House “When I saw how she was totally invested in the renovation it seemed quite natural,” explains Brossais Doliger a 1950s ceramic poodle lamp stands on an oak desk that belonged to Moltzer’s father which executed projects throughout the house The small Napoleon III chair was bought at auction and the bedside table stood in this bedroom during Moltzer’s childhood is a replica of fabric that once swathed the room outside the estate’s 19th-century “Norman house” she now inhabits the greenhouse is furnished with flea market finds The candlesticks on the table were designed by Moltzer’s father Baker's passion for pursuing a career in engineering stemmed from her desire to learn math and science at a young age I won an award for having the most math points in my school," said Baker who is majoring in engineering and minoring in mathematics and is also a member of the Whittier Track & Field team I’ve pushed myself to excel in all of my math courses and understand how it connects to other topics within STEM." Baker encourages other women interested in pursuing a career in engineering to believe in themselves “There were many times in my classes that I was the only woman or the only Black woman there and it would make me feel defeated and that I didn’t belong,” she said I realized that just because I am the only woman does not make me less capable than the other students I learned to take advantage of all of the opportunities being handed to [me] and be unapologetic about it.” Bailleul is celebrating two big milestones in her engineering career—her three-year anniversary at Raytheon and earning her master's degree in cyber security engineering from USC grew up with a fascination for how important technology is to our lives Her advice to other women pursuing a career in engineering is to be ready for constant learning "Every new project demands at least some level of learning and if that’s something you enjoy "If you’re willing to put in the effort and collaborate with others the end products can be highly rewarding and even life-saving It’s amazing what creative minds can do together." Reyes also majored in mathematics and is currently a system engineer at Northrop Grumman Her love for math led her to a career in engineering She offers the following advice to future women engineers: "Don't be afraid to be wrong There’s so much to learn from the people around you and they can learn a lot from you too Whittier College is committed to ensuring the accessibility of its web content to people with disabilities. We strive to meet W3C WAI’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Level AA conformance. To report an accessibility issue, a website problem, or submit feedback, please submit a Website Feedback Form Create your free account to receive personalised content alerts and Re:action our weekly newsletter of the top chemical science stories handpicked from a range of magazines journals and websites alongside insight and analysis from our expert editorial team Tell us what you think. Take part in our reader survey By Bárbara Pinho2021-10-26T08:30:00+01:00 But that doesn’t mean we can clone extinct species Jurassic Park-style A team of researchers found what seems to be DNA in a 125-million-year-old dinosaur fossil – though how the fragile biomolecules survived fossilisation remains a mystery Alida Bailleul a palaeontologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and her colleagues found the biomolecules in a portion of cartilage from a Caudipteryx specimen This peacock-sized theropod dinosaur inhabited what is now Northeast China and is one of the oldest species of dinosaurs with feathers discovered so far After decalcifying the fragment, the researchers treated the cells with hematoxylin and eosin compounds that stain cellular nuclei blue–purple and cytoplasm and extracellular matrix pink They also extracted and stained cartilage cells from a chicken to compare the results While most cells disappeared during the staining process dark purple threads encased in a larger purple circular structure They believe this to be an intact cellular nucleus with preserved threads of chromatin – a complex of DNA and protein These dinosaur nuclei are staining like normal cells This isn’t the first time scientists believe they’ve found biomolecules in dinosaur fossils. In 2020, Bailleul and team found evidence of proteins chromosomes and DNA material in cartilage from a 70-million-year-old duck-billed dinosaur fossil she and her colleagues remain cautious with any claims about the stained structures’ chemical identity ‘These dinosaur nuclei are staining like normal cells ‘What it means is that there are definitely parts of original organic molecules we don’t know that yet for sure.’ While staining is a good start it’s not precise enough to indicate whether certain compounds are present A cast of a Caudipteryx zoui specimen discovered in Liaoning Mary Schweitzer, a palaeontologist at North Carolina State University, US, also advises caution. ‘I commend the authors for their approach, but in my opinion, this study opens the door for further, more specific and higher resolution studies,’ she says. Sergio Bertazzo a biochemist from University College London ‘They need to use other chemical/biochemical techniques as mass spectrometry or any other method that can confirm the chemical identity of what they are staining.’ Bailleul is excited to collect more chemical data to get to the bottom of the biomolecular mystery more studies and new technological advances tell the full truth about DNA preservation in deep time.’ But as for the possibilities of a real-life Jurassic Park Bailleul is explicit: ‘We can never clone dinosaurs and bring them back to life even if we ended up having their entire genome sequenced.’ X Zheng et al, Commun. Biol., 2021, 4, 1125 (DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-02627-8) Site powered by Webvision Cloud Formerly from France — born and raised in Bretagne (Brittany) — with diplomas in organic chemistry and engineering Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer now lives in Chicago and studies How did she “migrate” from rural France to metropolitan Chicago it involved a crucial stopover at the University of Vermont whom I had met as an exchange student a few years earlier in Pennsylvania BoB had started a PhD program in chemistry with Dr While I had studied chemistry as an undergraduate I did not see myself pursuing a career in that field Having discovered that it was possible in the US to switch fields of study in graduate school I was willing to further explore this interest of mine and start a program in Egyptology To prepare myself for this next stage of my life BoB motivated me to contact the Classics Department at UVM It seemed as if the study of ancient Greece and Rome would serve as a good transition and ultimately help me reach my goal I was immediately welcomed with open arms by the Classics faculty Barbara Saylor Rodgers suggested that I start learning ancient Greek since I had already studied Latin in High School I then joined her class and started again translating Latin texts While quite challenging at first — I had not looked at my Latin grammar book for at least seven or eight years — I enjoyed reacquainting myself with these ancient languages I was especially fortunate to benefit from the support of Drs who suggested that I enter the MA program in Greek and Latin specifically their involvement in the Latin poem The Metamorphoses Vermont indeed holds a special place in my heart for it is where I discovered the amazing world of birds I include birds in my academic and leisurely pursuits During the two years spent in the UVM Classics Department as a graduate student I had the opportunity to work with and befriend several of the faculty a wonderful mentor and fervent supporter of my work with whom I taught Self-Paced Latin and Greek and who also motivated me to pursue my studies in the field of Egyptology I truly cannot thank the staff of the Classics department enough since it is their participation in my academic career which launched me on the path I am currently pursuing The next stop in our journey was the University of Texas at Austin where BoB obtained a post-doc position in electrochemistry After defending my thesis and being accepted in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC) department at the University of Chicago we hit the road again and moved to Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago After many years spent diving deep into the field of ancient Near Eastern studies entitled “The Exploitation of Avian Resources in Ancient Egypt: A Socio-Economic Study.” Whenever I have needed a break from dissertation work I have taken part in a variety of programs and activities offered by the Oriental Institute (OI) I had the privilege of being the curator of my own exhibit at the OI Museum whose topic will be a surprise for no one: birds in ancient Egypt In addition to granting me the chance to share my passion with the public this project allowed me to establish collaborative relationships with researchers at the Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH) in Chicago and the Radiology Department of the University of Chicago Medical Center we are working on the remains of birds that actually flew over the Nile Valley more than 2000 years ago and are now part of the OI and FMNH collections Millions of bird mummies have been manufactured during the later periods of Egyptian history many of which have made their way into museum collections all over the world Mummified bird remains will continue to be the focus of my work after I graduate from the University of Chicago I joined the research team of MAHES (Momies Animales et Humaines ÉgyptienneS) at the Musée des Confluences The team has started re-investigating the several thousands of animal mummies held in this museum I will in particular focus my attention on the 600+ mummies of birds of prey (falcons eagles and vultures) in the collection: plenty to keep me busy during the next few years especially considering that these birds are coming to us from ancient Egypt I am looking forward to discovering which species were selected by the ancient Egyptians and where these birds may have come from whether they were captured in the wild or bred in captivity If you are interested in these projects, you can follow my work at: chicago.academia.edu/RozennBailleulLeSuer University of Vermont home Metrics details Understanding non-crown dinosaur reproduction is hindered by a paucity of directly associated adults with reproductive traces from the Lower Cretaceous Xiagou Formation with an unlaid egg two-dimensionally preserved within the abdominothoracic cavity Ground-sections reveal abnormal eggshell proportions and multiple eggshell layers best interpreted as a multi-layered egg resulting from prolonged oviductal retention Fragments of the shell membrane and cuticle are both preserved SEM reveals that the cuticle consists of nanostructures resembling those found in neornithine eggs adapted for infection-prone environments which are hypothesized to represent the ancestral avian condition The femur preserves small amounts of probable medullary bone a tissue found today only in reproductively active female birds no other occurrence of Mesozoic medullary bone is associated with indications of reproductive activity Here we describe an important new specimen of enantiornithine bird preserving a wealth of reproductive features and information including a flattened intra-abdominal egg and traces of MB The specimen comes from the Lower Cretaceous Xiagou Formation and represents a new taxon We investigate the preserved egg through standard paleohistological methods and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) We discuss the implications of these findings in context of our understanding of dinosaur reproduction and the evolution of the specialized crown avian condition The generic name Avi- (bird) maia (mother) refers to the fact the specimen is a female preserved with an egg in the body cavity Schweitzerae is in honor of Mary Higby Schweitzer for her ground-breaking works on MB and for her role in establishing the field of molecular paleontology Photograph and line drawing of the holotype of Avimaia schweitzerae a Photograph of the partial skeleton with feather impressions and the crushed preserved egg between the pubes; b interpretive line drawing with white arrows indicating the two fragments extracted for microscopic analysis with a super-imposed CT-scan revealing the egg and underlying elements of the right pelvis in dorsal (synsacrum) and medial (ilium) view Gray denotes bones (darker gray indicating poor preservation) The distal ends are not fused but may have been in contact medially in life Only a fragment of the left fibula is preserved Pedal digit II is more robust than III and IV with a slightly larger ungual phalanx The penultimate phalanx of digit II is 50% longer than the first phalanx Digit III includes three long non-ungual phalanges with the proximal and penultimate phalanges being subequal in length and longer than the intermediate phalanx Short body feathers are preserved in the caudodorsal region, extending over the pygostyle where they become slightly longer (Fig. 1) Elongate ornamental tail feathers appear to be absent Light microscopy reveals multiple layers of eggshell The two-dimensionally preserved egg reveals between four and six layers in cross-section (a) dark brown layer) and shell membrane (sm) are also preserved (b) A close-up of the shell membrane (pink box) shows some fibrils (pink arrows) but in this case might be at least partially mineralized The eggshell layers are highly diagenetically altered (c A four-layered area with a mirror-image pattern most likely represents an abnormal double-layered egg (d e) that displays the tripartite ornithoid microstructure typically found in avian eggshells: a mammillary layer (ml) with organic cores (white arrows) this mirror-image pattern (e) could also be the product of sediment displacement and lithostatic compaction as exemplified in a second ground section (f sediment displacement and shear have also partially created a mirror-image pattern mimicking an abnormal multi-layered eggshell (f) Scale bar is 500 μm in a and g; 50 μm in b Histology reveals the presence of small amounts of medullary bone (MB) in the femur of Avimaia d—left image) and polarized light microscopy (b parallel-fibered and almost avascular cortical bone (CB) endosteal trabeculae of lamellar MB (which are much darker than the CB and the endosteal bone Other abbreviations: IPS intact periosteal surface we infer IVPP V25371 had not reached full skeletal maturity This exemplifies how sediment displacement can create a mirror-image pattern mimicking a multilayered egg This strongly suggests that the reproductive system of Avimaia IVPP V25371 was not functioning normally supporting interpretations regarding additional egg abnormalities and this condition has not been previously reported in any fossil bird If this is not the product of a sampling bias it is unclear why this condition would be less common in Neornithes compared to more basal reptiles but it may be related to physiological changes in crownward avians that Avimaia IVPP V25371 died within the hour before oviposition due to causes unrelated to egg retention or binding is possible but seems less likely given the multiple lines of evidence indicating dysfunction of the reproductive system this specimen provides additional evidence that reproductive maturity preceded skeletal maturity in stem birds Lower k values created a slightly larger polytomy among derived enantiornithines In the presented analysis we conducted a heuristic search using tree-bisection reconnection (TBR) retaining the single shortest tree from every 1000 followed by a second round of TBR The first round produced two trees 709 steps long; a second round of TBR produced 44 trees of the same length The surface area occupied by the flattened egg was calculated using a scaled photograph into the software Illustrator CS6 and the area-length plug-in The two fragments (from the eggshell and the femur, Supplementary Figure 2) were extracted with a rotating tool equipped with a diamond blade (Dremel 8100) the fragments were prepared using the paleohistological ground-sectioning technique: Samples were embedded in EXAKT Technovit 7200 (Norderstedt cut using an EXAKT 300CP accurate circular saw and then ground and polished using the EXAKT 400CS grinding system (Norderstedt Germany) until the desired optical contrast was reached (between 20 and 30 μm) Sections were observed under both natural and elliptically polarized light using a ZEISS AX10 light microscope (Thornwood Photographs were taken using the camera ZEISS AxioCam MRc5 (Thornwood USA) and the software Axio Vision SE64 (Rel We used the “photomerge” tool in Adobe Photoshop CS6 to reconstruct the entire sections CT scans were observed and photographs were taken using the software VGSTUDIO MAX (2.0) This published work and the nomenclatural acts it contains have been registered in ZooBank, the proposed online registration system for the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). The ZooBank LSIDs (Life Science Identifiers) can be resolved and the associated information viewed through any standard web browser by appending the LSID to the prefix “http://zoobank.org/” The LSIDs for this publication are: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:66CA3084-07B6-47F9-8F8D-3CC27C72678D Further information on experimental design is available in the Nature Research Reporting Summary linked to this article IVPP V25371 is reposited at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing All data are available upon reasonable request Medullary bone changes in the reproductive cycle of female pigeons Gender-specific reproductive tissue in ratites and Tyrannosaurus rex Ovarian follicles shed new light on dinosaur reproduction during the transition towards birds Preservation of ovarian follicles reveals early evolution of avian reproductive behaviour Chemistry supports the identification of gender-specific reproductive tissue in Tyrannosaurus rex A partial skeleton of an enantiornithine bird from the Early Cretaceous of northwestern China Stable isotope chemostratigraphy in lacustrine strata of the Xiagou Formation Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs 240–267 (University of California Press Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs 184–208 (University of California Press three-dimensionally preserved enantiornithine bird (Aves: Ornithothoraces) from Gansu Province A new Early Cretaceous enantiornithine (Aves Ornithothoraces) from northwestern China with elaborate tail ornamentation The most complete enantiornithine from North America and a phylogenetic analysis of the Avisauridae crystallography and diagenetic alteration in fossil ostrich eggshells from Upper Palaeolithic sites of Indian peninsular region Revisiting Sabath’s “larger avian eggs” from the Gobi Cretaceous Magnesium and phosphorus distribution in the avian eggshell Fossil eggshell cuticle elucidates dinosaur nesting ecology The evolution of eggshell cuticle in relation to nesting ecology A functional comparison of avian eggshell cuticles The role of matrix proteins in eggshell formation Fernández, M. S. & Salgado, L. The youngest egg of avian affinities from the Cretaceous of Patagonia. Hist. Biol. 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2018.1470622 (2018) Membrana testacea of titanosaurid dinosaur eggs from Auca Mahuevo (Argentina): implications for exceptional preservation of soft tissue in Lagerstätten Embryos and eggs for the Cretaceous theropod dinosaur Troodon formosus Current Developments in Bioerosion 397–413 (Springer Early bone diagenesis in temperate environments: Part I: surface features and histology Variation of the outer circumferential layer in the limb bones of birds A partial double-layered eggshell in the tropical mockingbird (Mimus gilvus) multilayered eggshell in birds: implications for dinosaur reproductive anatomy Recognition of vertebrate egg abnormalities in the Upper Cretaceous fossil record The importance of microscopic examinations of eggshells: discrimination of bioalteration and diagenetic overprints from biological features/Importancia de la microscopia en el examen de cascaras de huevos: discriminacion entre bioalteracion y senales diageneticas de las caracteristicas biologicas multilayered titanosaur (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) eggs from in situ clutches at the Auca Mahuevo locality Classification of fossil eggshells of amniotic vertebrates An exceptionally well-preserved theropod dinosaur from the Yixian Formation of China A pair of shelled eggs inside a female dinosaur Embryonic exposure to oestrogen causes eggshell thinning and altered shell gland carbonic anhydrase expression in the domestic hen Pathological amniote eggshell—fossil and modern Mesozoic Vertebrate Life 378–392 (Indiana University Press Essentials of Avian Medicine and Surgery Vol Paleobiological and isotopic studies of eggshells from a declining dinosaur species Some Factors Influencing the Bacterial Content and Keeping Quality of Eggs Vol Egg & Eggshell Quality (Iowa State University Press Understanding avian egg cuticle formation in the oviduct: a study of its origin and deposition Torsion and displacement of the oviduct as a cause of egg-binding in four psittacine birds Late Cretaceous avian eggs with embryos from Argentina Reproduction in Mesozoic birds and evolution of the modern avian reproductive mode Dinosaur egg colour had a single evolutionary origin Dinosaur origin of egg color: oviraptors laid blue-green eggs Sexual maturity in growing dinosaurs does not fit reptilian growth models Medullary bone in an Early Cretaceous enantiornithine (Aves) and discussion regarding its identification in fossils Pathologic bone tissues in a turkey vulture and a nonavian dinosaur: implications for interpreting endosteal bone and radial fibrolamellar bone in fossil dinosaurs Gender identification of the Mesozoic bird Confuciusornis sanctus evolution and significance in growth curve reconstructions of extinct vertebrates and chemistry of medullary bone in Neornithes – Paleobiological implications In 5th International Paleontological Congress The histology of two female Early Cretaceous birds Was dinosaurian physiology inherited by birds Osteohistology of the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation ornithuromorph (Aves) Iteravis huchzermeyeri Life history of a basal bird: morphometrics of the Early Cretaceous Confuciusornis Growth patterns in brooding dinosaurs reveals the timing of sexual maturity in non-avian dinosaurs and genesis of the avian condition Insights into the evolution of rachis dominated tail feathers from a new basal enantiornithine (Aves: Ornithothoraces) Avian Evolution: The Fossil Record of Birds and Its Paleobiological Significance (John Wiley & Sons Insight into the early evolution of the avian sternum from juvenile enantiornithines A redescription of Chaoyangia beishanensis (Aves) and a comprehensive phylogeny of Mesozoic birds Complete Ichthyornis skull illuminates mosaic assembly of the avian head A second enantiornithean (Aves: Ornithothoraces) wing from the Early Cretaceous Xiagou Formation near Changma Weighting against homoplasy improves phylogenetic analysis of morphological data sets Paleontology: a cock’s comb on a duck-billed dinosaur Download references We thank Hua Xiang for SEM and EDS spectra analyses We thank Tzuruei Yang for discussions about the cuticle chemistry and Holly Woodward for discussions about the femoral histology we thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No the Chinese Academy of Sciences-President’s International Fellowship Initiative (CAS-PIFI) program and the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Number: XDB26000000) Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment The authors declare no competing interests Journal peer review information: Nature Communications thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09259-x Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Credit: Image courtesy of Michael Rothman (artist) A study explores the evolutionary origin and function of a small toothless beak-like structure at the front of the toothed jaws of some prehistoric birds was seen in toothed ornithuromorph birds that lived in the Cretaceous and colleagues investigated the origin and function of the predentary in the preserved remains of Yanornis martini from China The authors used high resolution CT scans and other microscopic analyses to develop a 3D model of the tip of the jaws and tissues The authors found evidence of cartilage inside the joint between the predentary and the rest of the lower jaw the results suggest that the predentary was mobile and had characteristics of a sesamoid bone Other characteristics suggest that the predentary and teeth were proprioceptive which could have aided in prey capture by responding to sensory stimuli the proprioceptive capability and kinetic movement of the predentary inferred from the results may have played a role in precision and dexterity during foraging Article # 19-11820: "Origin of the avian predentary and evidence of a unique form of cranial kinesis in Cretaceous ornithuromorphs," by Alida M are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system Copyright © 2025 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Having recently succeeded Elisabeth Sarcelet as Champagne Castelnau’s chef de caves shares how her wine journey ended in Champagne with Lisa Riley I think my first experience with wine was scientific our science teacher made us study the fermentation of Clairette de Die a sparkling wine from the region I grew up in I learnt about the role of an oenologist: it was a revelation I was fascinated by the power of the invisible and the alchemy of smells and flavours I think this links to my ultimate scientific fascination with wine and essences can result from such a natural product and through specific winemaking I have incredible memories of a red Hermitage tasted at the Tain cellar The sweetness of the tannins enchanted the velvety aromas on my palate But it was at Champagne Castelnau a few years later that I realised I wanted to make Champagne The inheritance of expertise is the cornerstone of our business.The passing of time remains the same each year but the rhythm is constantly changing Now it’s up to me to continue to conduct the symphony started years ago by my mentors and I attribute the inheritance of my winemaking skills in great part to Elisabeth Sarcelet whom I have been working closely alongside since 2003 starting as an intern at Champagne Castelnau to now AWL announces creation of new global win... WSTA executive board gains three new mem... Christopher Delalonde joins Perfect Cell... Diageo GB announces new marketing and in... Viña Pomal launches first sparkling Rioj... Bodegas Baigorri partners with Top Selec... You can now view the latest Harpers supplement with our digital edition... View the Top 100 2024 competition results here.. Vergelegen – continuity and change on the Schapenberg Talking innovation and opening doors with LWC Koshu brings flavour of Japan to London Reh Kendermann: Sales Manager UK This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Developing countries are buckling under high debt and exorbitant borrowing costs, that prevent them from reviving their economies, UN chief António Guterres said on Thursday Guterres said many African States were spending more on debt repayments than on desperately needed healthcare and that over 50 countries were either in default or “dangerously” close to it The UN chief called for a debt relief mechanism that supports payment suspensions longer lending terms and lower rates to make borrowing more affordable for poorer nations as well as increased access to liquidity for developing countries via the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights Guterres also repeated his urgent call to end fossil fuel subsidies and increase climate adaptation funding for vulnerable countries these steps would help to beat poverty and hunger stressing that the measures would enable a “giant leap” towards global justice Doing nothing is simply not an option and at the halfway point to reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) they are “drifting further away by the day” he warned delegates to the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact He said it was clear the international financial architecture built in the aftermath of World War Two “has failed in its mission to provide a global safety net for developing countries the political and economic power dynamics of that time” when three quarters of today’s nations weren’t around the table at Bretton Woods. the global financial architecture is outdated It is no longer capable of meeting the needs of the 21st century world: a multipolar world characterized by deeply integrated economies and financial markets But also marked by geopolitical tensions and growing systemic risks.” He warned the current global financial system exacerbates inequalities denying the poorest countries the credit and debt support they need and deserve. European citizens received nearly 13 times more than African citizens under current rules for Special Drawing Rights to weather recent crises a situation that is “profoundly immoral” said Mr “A financial architecture which does not represent today’s world is at risk of leading to its own fragmentation in a world where geopolitics is in itself a factor for fragmentation “There will be no serious solution to this crisis without serious reforms.” He said change would not happen fast and was a question of power and political will “But as we work for the deep reforms that are needed we can take urgent action today to meet the urgent needs of developing and emerging economies.” He said richer nations could establish “a really effective and time effective debt relief mechanism that supports payment suspensions including for middle income countries with particular vulnerabilities Development and climate finance can be better capitalized He said credit rating agencies had become “deeply biased” and contributed to many of the recent financial crises He said taking immediate action towards wholesale reform could curb hunger “We can take steps right now – and take a giant leap towards global justice.” The UN chief said he was aware of the scale of the challenges the international community now faces. “Power dynamics and constraints on global cooperation in today’s world make problems more difficult to solve But solutions are not impossible. And we can start now.” He said the following two days of discussion could yield results for millions of people in need. “I urge you to make this meeting not just a cri du cœur for change but a cri de guerre – a rallying cry for urgent action” “We are at a moment of truth and reckoning. Together The UN chief shared his perspective on the state of world affairs overall later in the day in the French capital receiving a warm welcome at the celebrated Paris School of International Affairs In an address and taking questions from students he presented ideas for transforming multilateralism to make it fit for today's global challenges Metrics details The phosphorites of the Quercy from SouthWest France are well known for fossils preserved in 3D with phosphatized soft-tissues Given that phosphatization is known to favor fine cellular preservation the present study delves into the histological analysis of white and brown bones of Cainotheriidae (Artiodactyla) recently excavated from the DAM1 site near Caylus Microscopy revealed that the white bones were completely filled with bacterial erosions while the brown bones showed a pristine histology and intralacunar content resembling fossilized osteocytes in some areas a brown bone revealed an abundance of blood vessel-like structures innumerable osteocyte-like structures with canaliculi and a few chondrocyte-like structures while a white bone revealed only blood vessel-like structures that looked eaten away All the data combined suggest the brown bones were shielded from bacterial attacks and were filled with fossilized organic matter and original biological structures The data taken all together do not support that these structures are casts This study encourages further histochemical and mineralogical analyses on Quercy fossils and the unique taphonomy of DAM1 to better understand fossilization processes and their impact on the color of bones emphasizing the importance of studying Quercy’s phosphatized fossils for insights into cellular and even subcellular preservation The eight Cainotheriidae fossils bones from DAM1 analyzed here and showing different colors white patella UM-DAM1-278 (QU-1) and decalcified white patella UN-DAM1-285 (QU-7); B brown patella UM-DAM1-279 (QU-2) and decalcified brown patella UN-DAM1-286 (QU-8); C three unfused distal femoral epiphyses UM-DAM1-280 QU-4 and QU-5) ranging from white to brown; D distal femur UM-DAM1-283 (QU-6) with white epiphysis and a brown diaphysis we investigated six bones with standard ground-sectioning methods as well as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) paired with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) two other bones were decalcified in EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) we report (1) the histological preservation of mammalian skeletons and (2) osteocyte preservation in the Quercy We also demonstrate a link between bone color and the preservation of original microscopic structures and give some insights on the taphonomic histories of these bones This study further encourages the comparison of the taphonomic processes cellular paleontology and chemistry of different fossil sites from the Quercy photograph of the patella QU-1 with the red line indicating the direction of the section; B histological cross section of QU-1 under transmitted light and its close-up (C) and (D) SEM image of the section slice indicated by the box in B and its close-up (F) showing the bacterial colonies and decrease of bone matrix density The white patella is heavily attacked by bacterial invasions SEM image of pores and channels made by a bacterial colony in QU-1 The white arrows indicate the fibrous material in the pores this histological examination provides detailed insights into the altered structure of the white bones highlighting that they were originally attacked by bacterial colonies and shows the impact on both organic and inorganic components of the bone matrix Histology of a distal femur (QU-6) with brown diaphysis and white epiphysis photograph of QU-6 with red line indicate the direction of section; B histological of ground section slice of QU-6 under transmitted light and its close-up of epiphysis (C) showing the bacterial colonies in the epiphysis as in the white patella QU-1 and unaltered bone in the metaphysis and diaphysis as in the brown patella QU-2; F EDS of (E) showing the iron deposition in the bone matrix while such preservation was not found in the bacterially invaded QU-1 and QU-3 (nor in the bacterially invaded white epiphyses of QU-6) These intralacunar material filled most of the lacunae in the SEM images, showing a significantly different picture from the dark globule observed under the light microscope (Fig. 4C The dark globule seen under the light microscope is not visible with the SEM most likely because SEM only shows surface data whereas standard microscopy shows light shining through a material with a thickness and a depth of field SEM data indicates the transparent part of the lacunae (seen under the light microscope) is not empty but filled by a different material It is likely that the ‘dark globule’ is located deeper within this material This material was further analyzed by EDS analysis (see next section) EDS analysis of the intralacunar content in brown QU-2. A, close up SEM image of the osteocyte lacunae in Fig. 4I and EDS analysis on the same image (B) showing the different chemical element content of the different lacunae and different location in the same lacuna; Alumino-silicified (Abundant Si and Al probably components of hydroxyapatite or fluoroapatite) (C-D) Another analysis in a brown part of QU-6 (in the diaphysis) shows ironized intralacunar content (E) Microphotographs of decalcified contents of white patella QU-7 and brown patella QU-8 Decalcified contents of QU-8 after 4 days in EDTA (A-D) Decalcified contents of white patella QU-7 after 11 days in EDTA in (E) and (G) Decalcified content of brown QU-8 after 11 days in EDTA in (F) and (H) the ‘broken blood vessel’ (bbv) is clearly eaten away (G); the red arrows in (H) are pointing at osteocytes in QU-8 and remnants of endogenous structures that are partially consumed by bacteria in the white bones it is possible that the microenvironments of these fossils in the early stages of burial were different the bones that were attacked by bacteria remained on the surface of the sediment for some time in an environment that was probably saturated with water conditions that allowed the bacteria to attack the bones directly other bones may have been buried in the detritic sediment -certainly saturated with water This detritic sediment directly or indirectly filled the bone porosity this means that chemical attack on the detrital sediment provided the chemical elements that made up the various mineral phases that precipitated and/or accumulated in the porosity in particular within the osteocyte lacunae (see next section) It is the first time that bacterial invasions are reported and histologically analyzed in any fossil of the Quercy phosphorites giving an interesting insight on the taphonomy of the newly discovered site of DAM1 and showing that fossils in the Quercy are not always exceptionally preserved It is however too difficult to tell when exactly the invasions occurred after death nor how long they were going on until the death of all the bacterial colonies but it is plausible to hypothesize attacks occurred during early diagenesis rather than during late diagenesis It is also important to note that some cell lacunae are highly likely also filled with ‘pollution’ rather than in-situ mineralization This highlights the importance of applying more than one method for the detection of different cellular structures and/or tissues within one same sample Our decalcification method showed that chondrocytes are indeed preserved here in at least some specimens of DAM1 and suggests future histochemical and cellular analyses on DAM1 cartilage are necessary our results do not support these interpretations for the specific site of DAM1 bacterial invasions (which apparently occurred early during burial rather than later during diagenesis) limited the preservation of organic matter (i.e. The Quercy is highly likely filled with unique taphonomies at each of its sites even perhaps between two sites very close to each other and this requires further attention It is unlikely that the soft tissues are simply casts and future investigations should delve into comparing the preservation of bones preserved with and without soft tissues and to better understand the preservation of soft-tissues and cells themselves Biochronological dating suggests an MP19 age (late Priabonian; ca This unique area shelters abundant fossiliferous caves with a continuous record spanning the 42–24 Ma interval (late middle Eocene–late Oligocene) capturing a dynamic history and significant global climatic changes see the red lines) and polished until the desired optical contrast was reached Ground sections were observed under transmitted and polarized light using a Nikon Eclipse LV100NPOL and photographed with a DS-Fi3 camera and the software NIS-Element v4.60 The ground sections were analyzed at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (Beijing) using FEI Quanta 450 (FEG) at 20 kV Both BSE and SE modes (back-scattered electrons and secondary electrons) were applied to the ground-sections Both elemental mapping and specific points were targeted QU-7 and QU-8 (Fig. 7) were decalcified in a solution of EDTA (0.5 M; pH 8.0) for 11 days (without any solution change) one drop of solution is pipetted on top of a glass slide which is then cover-slipped These slides need to be rapidly photographed before evaporation The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request The lower vertebrates from the Eocene and Oligocene of the Phosphorites du Quercy (France): An overview The fossil insects of the Quercy region: A historical review A new species of Eofelis (Carnivora: Nimravidae) from the phosphorites of Quercy Carnivora) from the late oligocene of the Phosphorites Du Quercy (France) and a reappraisal of the genus Cephalogale Geoffroy Carnivora from the early oligocene of the ‘Phosphorites Du Quercy’ in southwestern France The upper eocene-oligocene carnivorous mammals from the Quercy phosphorites (France) housed in Belgian collections SW France): Phylogenetic relationships and evolution around the eocene–oligocene transition (MP19–MP21) A re-interpretation of the Eocene anuran Thaumastosaurus based on microCT examination of a ‘mummified’ specimen Synchrotron analysis of a ‘mummified’salamander (Vertebrata: Caudata) from the Eocene of Quercy Exceptional soft tissues preservation in a mummified frog-eating Eocene salamander Parasitoid biology preserved in mineralized fossils Osteological atlas of new lizards from the Phosphorites Du Quercy (France) Les phosphorites Du Quercy:30 ans de recherche Les paragénèses phosphatées du paléokarst des phosphorites du Quercy Preliminary palynological data on floristic and climatic changes during the Middle Eocene-Early Oligocene of the eastern Ebro Basin Paleogene floral assemblages around epicontinental seas and straits in Northern Central Eurasia: proxies for climatic and paleogeographic evolution Late proterozoic–early phanerozoic ‘taphonomic windows’: the environmental and temporal distribution of recurrent modes of exceptional preservation Exceptional fossil conservation through phosphatization Phosphatization of soft-tissue in experiments and fossils Unveiling biases in soft-tissue phosphatization: Extensive preservation of musculature in the cretaceous (cenomanian) polychaete Rollinschaeta myoplena (Annelida: Amphinomidae) Precambrian animal diversity: putative phosphatized embryos from the Doushantuo Formation of China Phosphatized animal embryos from the neoproterozoic doushantuo formation at Weng’an Doushantuo embryos preserved inside diapause egg cysts Macromolecular resolution of fossilized muscle tissue from an elopomorph fish Soft-bodied fossils are not simply rotten carcasses – Toward a holistic understanding of exceptional fossil preservation Reconstructing carotenoid-based and structural cloration in fossil skin Microscopical focal destruction (tunnels) in exhumed human bones The origins of microbial bioerosion in mineralised collagen Bones and Cartilage: Developmental and Evolutionary Skeletal Biology (Elsevier/Academic In situ SEM/EDS compositional characterization of osteocytes and blood vessels in fossil and extant turtles on untreated bone surfaces; Different preservational pathways microns away Exceptional preservation of an extinct ostrich from the late Miocene Linxia Basin of China Nuclear preservation in the cartilage of the Jehol dinosaur Caudipteryx A role for iron and oxygen chemistry in preserving soft tissues Soft tissue preservation in terrestrial mesozoic vertebrates Patterns of soft tissue and cellular preservation in relation to fossil bone tissue structure and overburden depth at the Standing Rock Hadrosaur Site Early bone diagenesis in temperate environments: Part I: Surface features and histology Early bioerosion in skeletal tissues: Persistence through deep time Destruction of microstructure in archaeological bone: A case study from Portugal Sub-micron spongiform porosity is the major ultra-structural alteration occurring in archaeological bone Jans, M. M. E. Microbial bioerosion of bone – A review. In Current Developments in Bioerosion (eds Wisshak, M. & Tapanila, L.). 397–413. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77598-0_20 (Springer Dinosaurian soft tissues interpreted as bacterial biofilms Soft tissue and biomolecular preservation in vertebrate fossils from glauconitic shallow marine sediments of the Hornerstown formation Bone diagenesis in the European holocene I: Patterns and mechanisms SEM analyses of fossilized chondrocytes in the extinct birds Yanornis and confuciusornis: Insights on taphonomy and modes of preservation in the Jehol Biota Fossilized nuclei and chromosomes reveal 180 million years of genomic stasis in royal ferns The role of decay and mineralization in the preservation of soft-bodied fossils Fossilized cell nuclei are not that rare: review of the histological evidence in the Phanerozoic chromosomes and chemical markers of DNA in exceptionally preserved dinosaur cartilage Do chondrocytes within calcified cartilage have a higher preservation potential than osteocytes Influence of microbial biofilms on the preservation of primary soft tissue in fossil and extant archosaurs Fossilization of soft tissue in the laboratory Histochemical demonstration of DNA in osteocytes from dinosaur bones DNA staining in fossil cells beyond the Quaternary: reassessment of the evidence and prospects for an improved understanding of DNA preservation in deep time Application of paraffin section and histochemistry technique in paleohistology of fossil samples Biochronologie mammalienne du cénozoïque en Europe et domaines reliés Unearthing deep-time biodiversity changes: The Palaeogene mammalian metacommunity of the Quercy and Limagne area (Massif Central morphological evolution and diversity dynamics of a surviving mammal clade: Cainotherioids at the eocene–oligocene transition Artiodactyla) from the early oligocene of south-western France Weppe, R., Blondel, C., Vianey-Liaud, M., Pélissié, T. & Orliac, M. J. A new Cainotherioidea (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) from Palembert (Quercy, SW France): phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of the dental pattern of Cainotheriidae. Palaeontol. Electron. https://doi.org/10.26879/1081 (2020) Download references We thank Zhang Shukang and Zhu Yuxia for preparing the ground section slices We thank Maeva Orliac at the ISEM (Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier) for providing all of the samples for this study and for discussions This work was supported by the Youth Innovation Promotion Association Grant of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2023078) and National Natural Science Foundation of China NSFC grant 42350610256 to AMB NSFC grant 42302012 and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (5224037) supported QW The collection of study material in the field was financially supported by the ANR DEADENDER and ENLIVEN programs (grants ANR-18-CE02-0003-01 and ANR-22-CE02-0014-01) - PI Mr J Orliac and the association "Phosphatières du Quercy" Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier State Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research Centre for Research and Education on Biological Evolution and Environment and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-74301-y Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Microbiology newsletter — what matters in microbiology research Alida Bailleul (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology Mary Schweitzer (North Carolina State University Lund University and Museum of the Rockies) Microscopic analyses of skull fragments from these nestling dinosaurs were conducted by Alida Bailleul at the Museum of the Rockies In one fragment she noticed some exquisitely preserved cells within preserved calcified cartilage tissues on the edges of a bone Two cartilage cells were still linked together by an intercellular bridge morphologically consistent with the end of cell division (see left image below) dark material resembling a cell nucleus was also visible One cartilage cell preserved dark elongated structures morphologically consistent with chromosomes (center image below) my heart almost stopped beating," Bailleul says sought to determine whether original molecules were also preserved in this dinosaur cartilage The team performed immunological and histochemical analyses on the skull of another nestling Hypacrosaurus from that same nesting ground in Schweitzer's North Carolina laboratory The team found that the organic matrix surrounding the fossilized cartilage cells reacted to antibodies of Collagen II the dominant protein in cartilage in all vertebrates "This immunological test supports the presence of remnants of original cartilaginous proteins in this dinosaur," Schweitzer says The researchers also isolated individual Hypacrosaurus cartilage cells and applied two DNA-stains DAPI (4?,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) and PI (propidium iodide) These bind specifically to DNA fragments in extant material and some of the isolated dinosaur cells showed internal positive binding in the same pattern as seen in modern cells suggesting some original dinosaur DNA is preserved (see below "These new exciting results add to growing evidence that cells and some of their biomolecules can persist in deep-time They suggest DNA can preserve for tens of millions of years and we hope that this study will encourage scientists working on ancient DNA to push current limits and to use new methodology in order to reveal all the unknown molecular secrets that ancient tissues have" Bailleul says The possibility that DNA can survive for tens of millions of years is not currently recognized by the scientific community based upon kinetic experiments and modelling it is generally accepted that DNA persists less than 1 million years These new data support other results that suggest DNA in some form can persist in Mesozoic tissues and lay the foundation for future efforts to recover and sequence DNA from other very ancient fossils in laboratories worldwide 10.1093/nsr/nwz206 Metrics details Among the molecular mechanisms of adaptation in biology enzyme functional diversification is indispensable By allowing organisms to expand their catalytic repertoires and adopt fundamentally different chemistries animals can harness or eliminate new-found substances and xenobiotics that they are exposed to in new environments we explore the flavin-containing monooxygenases (FMOs) that are essential for xenobiotic detoxification Employing a paleobiochemistry approach in combination with enzymology techniques we disclose the set of historical substitutions responsible for the family’s functional diversification in tetrapods a few amino acid replacements differentiate an ancestral multi-tasking FMO into a more specialized monooxygenase by modulating the oxygenating flavin intermediate Our findings substantiate an ongoing premise that enzymatic function hinges on a subset of residues that is not limited to the active site core The recurring molecular structure represents the isoalloxazine moiety of the FAD cofactor where R corresponds to the ribityl adenosine tail The reduced enzyme (E-FADH2) readily reacts with O2 forming the oxygenating enzyme intermediate C4a-flavin(hydro)peroxide (E-FADOO(H)) both followed by subsequent release of H2O and NADP+ In absence of substrate the enzyme undergoes a futile hydrogen peroxide-producing cycle called uncoupling functional diversity is caused by a network of residues outside the active site that modulates the formation of the oxygenating flavin intermediate These findings led to a critical conclusion: the ancestor of all tetrapod FMO paralogs (tAncFMO1–5) was a bifunctional enzyme capable of performing both The distances between an H at the Cγ1 of the I60 side chain and the O at the C4 of the FAD (2.6 Å) and between the Nε2 of H275 and the Cε1 of H426 with two O atoms of the phosphate moiety of NADP+ (6.7 and 3.3 Å) d Hydrogen bonding interactions for I60 are shown in light blue e Hydrogen bonding interactions for H275 and H426 are described in light blue tAncFMO1–5 secondary structure and residues are shown in purple FAD and NADP+ molecules are depicted in yellow and blue Spectra were timely recorded to monitor the reaction of reduced tAncFMO1–4 with molecular oxygen in a stopped-flow apparatus Representative ones are shown (n = 3 independent experiments) The upper left inset shows the deconvoluted spectra fitted into a two-step process \(a\mathop{\to }\limits^{{k}_{1}}b\mathop{\to }\limits^{{k}_{2}}c\) with k1 = 3.2 ± 0.11 s−1 and k2 = 0.0065 ± 0.0001 s−1 The upper right inset shows the change in absorbance between species a (E-FADH2) and b (E-FADOO(H)) Source data are provided as a Source Data file The combination of these residues might therefore slightly perturb the electrostatics surrounding the catalytic center and fine tune the local dynamics of the tightly bound and catalytically essential NADP+ and N426H mutations might enable BV catalysis by electrostatically favoring the formation of the negatively charged Criegee intermediate and providing the active site with the adaptability required for the carbon atom migration we shed light on the emergence and development of catalysis in animal FMOs The trajectory of the FMO family in tetrapods was functionally dissected there are two notable aspects to be discussed; one concerning catalysis in nucleotide-dependent enzymes and the other related to organisms’ biology two fundamental conclusions can be outlined: (i) for nucleotide-dependent monooxygenases functionality is the result of complex interactions among the functional substitutions setting the internal catalytic network the identity of the hydride donor and the substrate/O2 pair and (ii) enzyme specialization can occur through unlikely mutations that do not directly target the catalytic residues but rather alter the fine balance of interactions and structural dynamics of the enzyme This hypothesis is supported by the presence of only a single-copy FMO in bony fishes FMOs grew in number and became functionally diverse over time granting tetrapods a highly versatile detoxification system capable of converting heteroatom- and carbonyl-containing compounds Sites were considered ambiguously reconstructed when the alternative states displayed posterior probabilities (PP) > 0.2 The sequences of the alternative ancestors (Alt_tAncFMOs) were generated by including altogether the second-best states for the ambiguously reconstructed sites plus the MAP states (PP > 0.8) Those sites identified as conserved either across the entire dataset or just among the heteroatom-oxidative lineage or the BV lineage were further selected the structural environment of each of the sites was inspected using the structures of mAncFMO5 (PDB 6SEK) as a model for the BV lineage and mAncFMO2 (PDB 6SF0) as a model for the heteroatom oxidizing lineage Sixteen sites were detected as candidates to experimentally test These sites where further divided into three subgroups according to their proximity to the active site and/or conservation degree Thus 4× included 4 substitutions at the active site 12× included the substitutions of 4× plus 8 sites and 16× included all the selected sites This step helped to quickly remove residues that likely provided no role in altering function All remaining residues were kept and evaluated using the aforementioned reverse mutational strategy # EL0013) was ordered from Thermo Fisher Scientific # 44335000) was ordered from Oriental Yeast Co # FB18263) were purchased from Biosynth and all other chemicals were from Sigma-Aldrich Synthetic genes containing BsaI restriction sites at both the 5′ and 3′ ends were ordered from Twist Bioscience or from Integrated DNA Technology (IDT) for the tAncFMOs: 1–3 Lyophilized genes were resuspended to a final concentration of 10 ng µl−1 in sterile 10 mM Tris-HCl All tAncFMO genes were cloned following the Golden Gate cloning method The recipient vector was a pBAD plasmid modified in such a way that the target protein is expressed fused at its N-terminus to a N-6xHis-tag-SUMO protein The cloning mixture was the following: 55.4 ng of tAncFMOs insert 75 ng of Golden Gate entry vector (a molar ratio of 2:1 insert: vector) and nuclease-free water added to a final volume of 20 μl A negative control was prepared without any insert and the PCR cycles were as it follows: the first step with a cycle at 37 °C for 1 h was followed by 55 °C for 10 min Then the temperature was set at 65 °C for 20 min and hold at 8 °C the pBAD-6xHis-SUMO-tAncFMO plasmids were transformed into CaCl2-competent E 5.0 μl of plasmid DNA was added to 100 μl CaCl2 competent cells and incubated for 30 min The cells were then heat shocked at 42 °C for 30 s and incubated on ice for 5 min 500 μl LB-SOC was added to allow the cells to recover at 37 °C for 1 h The resuspended cells pellet was then plated on LB-agar containing 100 μg ml−1 ampicillin and incubated overnight at 37 °C Plasmids were purified and verified by sequencing Twenty percent glycerol stocks were stored at −70 °C A pre-inoculum of 4 ml LB-amp (50 μg ml−1) was grown overnight at 37 °C and used to inoculate 2 l baffled flasks containing 400 ml of Terrific-Broth medium supplemented with 50 mg l−1 ampicillin and incubated at 37 °C Expression was induced by adding 0.02% L-arabinose from a sterile 20% stock (w/v) when the OD600 was between 0.2 and 0.5 Cultures were grown at 24 °C with shaking for a total of 30 h before harvesting Cells were harvested by centrifugation (2755g Pellets were resuspended into Buffer A (250 mM NaCl pH 7.5) with a 5:1 ratio [volume (ml): mass (g)] and supplemented with 0.10 mM phenyl methyl sulfonyl fluoride and 1.0 mM β-mercaptoethanol Cell disruption was done by sonication (70% amplitude the supernatant was removed and the pellet was resuspended into Buffer A2 (250 mM NaCl Sigma-Aldrich) in the same ratio as before (5:1) The resuspended pellet was mixed overnight at 4 °C in order to solubilize the membrane proteins and centrifuged at 19,500g to collect the supernatant tAncFMOs were purified with a metal-ion affinity chromatography resin (Cat The cell-free extract was applied to the column and washed with increasing concentrations of imidazole the protein was finally eluted with 300 mM imidazole The elution buffer was exchanged with a storage buffer (250 mM NaCl pH 7.5) using a HiPrep 26/10 Desalting column (Cat Purified 6xHis-SUMO tagged enzymes were frozen with liquid nitrogen and kept at −70 °C Experiments were performed using these aliquots Concentrations of tAncFMOs were determined from frozen samples that were thawed at room temperature and later incubated at 95 °C centrifuged and the supernatant analyzed on a Jasco V-660 spectrophotometer Using εFAD = 11.3 mM−1 cm−1 at 450 nm the amount of holoenzyme was quantified and considered the same for the other respective aliquots a PCR-reaction mixture was prepared with 10 µM primer 0.8 mM MgCl2 and 1× Pfu Ultra II Hotstart Master Mix (Cat The Quick Change PCR cycle was performed using the following method: first a 5 min incubation at 95 °C 72 °C for 6 min) were repeated 25 times; followed by 72 °C for 10 min and finishing with 8 °C on hold The PCR mixture was digested with DpnI overnight and transformed into E Subsequent mutations were done using the previously obtained mutants The following primers were employed: T60I Fw 5′-GCGCGCATCAATCTATAAAAGTGTAATTATAAACACGAGCAAAGAG-3′ & Rv 5′-CTCTTTGCTCGTGTTTATAATTACACTTTTATAGATTGATGCGCGC-3′; N222S Fw 5′-GGGAAGCTGGGTCCTGAATCGGGTATCG-3′ & N275H Fw 5′-CTACGGATTAGTGCCTCAACATAGAATCCTTTCCCAACA-3′ & Rv 5′-TGTTGGGAAAGGATTCTATGTTGAGGCACTAATCCGTAG-3′; N462H Fw 5′-GGTTTGTTACGAGTCAGCGTCATACCATTCAAACGGATTAT-3′ & Rv 5′-ATAATCCGTTTGAATGGTATGACGCTGACTCGTAACAAACC-3′ The last two components were used as a regeneration system for NADPH and the control did not contain any tAncFMO All compounds were prepared in storage buffer (50 mM KPi pH 7.5) the final reaction volume was adjusted to 1.0 ml and put into 4 ml vials before being incubated at 30 °C benzyl phenyl sulfide and methyl-p-tolyl sulfide were analyzed by GC–MS while benzydamine and tamoxifen conversions were monitored by HPLC and benzyl phenyl sulfide conversions were done using 1.0 mM substrate while the remaining substrates were tested at 5.0 mM Conversions were calculated based on the substrate depletion and normalized with the internal standard HPLC analyses were performed after diluting 300 μl of the sample into 1200 μl acetonitrile Analysis of the supernatant was performed using reverse phase HPLC Samples were injected with a volume of 10 μl onto a JASCO AS2051 Plus HPLC system equipped with a Grace Alltima HP C18 column (5 μm The solvents used were water with 0.1% v/v formic acid (A) and acetonitrile (B) and the flow rate was 0.8 ml.min-1 For benzydamine the method corresponded to 8 min on a isocratic flow of 35% B and 65% A Benzydamine and benzydamine N-oxide were detected at 308 nm with a retention time of 5.3 min and 5.7 min For tamoxifen the method was the following: 30 min on a gradient of 40–95% B 3 min with 95% B followed by a 5 min decreased gradient of 95–40% B and finally a re-equilibration for 2 min Tamoxifen and tamoxifen N-oxide were detected at 276 nm with a retention time of 10.5 min and 11.7 min Both products identity was confirmed using the corresponding standards and the conversion calculated based on substrate depletion In order to observe the C4a-(hydro)peroxyflavin formation we carried out stopped-flow experiments using the SX20 stopped-flow spectrometer equipped with either the photodiode array detector or the photomultiplier tubes (PMT) module (Applied Photophysics Results were obtained by mixing 50 μl of two solutions in single mixing mode All solutions were prepared in 50 mM potassium phosphate 250 mM NaCl and 0.05% TritonTm X-100 reduced a concentration of 8–15 μM enzyme was used and measurements were done in technical triplicates the solutions were supplemented with 5.0 mM glucose Enzyme solutions were made anaerobic by flushing solutions for 10 min with nitrogen followed by adding 0.3 μM glucose oxidase (Aspergillus niger Sigma-Aldrich) to consume the leftover oxygen In order to reduce the flavin cofactor in the tAncFMOs 1–1.2 equivalent of NADPH was added to the enzymatic solution The resulting solution was incubated on ice until the bleaching of the FAD was complete For determining the rates of the intermediate formation the reduced enzymes were mixed with buffers containing different concentrations of dioxygen The final concentrations of dioxygen (0.13 0.96 mM after mixing) were achieved by mixing the anaerobic enzyme solution with (1) air-saturated buffer; (2) equal volumes of 100% argon buffer and 100% O2 buffer; (3) 100% O2 buffer; (4) 100% O2 buffer on ice All solutions were bubbled for 10 min at room temperature Observed rates (kobs) were determined by fitting traces to exponential functions All data were analyzed using Pro-Data Viewer v4.2.12 Pro-Kineticist v1.0.13 (Applied Photophysics Steady-state kinetics assays were performed in technical triplicates on a Jasco V-660 spectrophotometer Enzyme activity of the ancestral proteins was measured by monitoring NADPH consumption (absorbance at 340 nm The buffer used for kinetic analyses was 50 mM potassium phosphate The spectrophotometer was set at 25 °C and the reaction was started by adding the enzyme For the KM determination of the substrates The NAD(P)H uncoupling rates were determined in the absence of substrates in duplicates Oxygen affinity was determined employing The Oxygraph+ (Hansatech Instruments Ltd. The oxygen consumption was monitored after enzymes (concentration ranging 3–12 μM) were mixed with air-saturated buffer containing the NADPH cofactor and a substrate air-saturated water contains around 0.2 mM oxygen excess of NADPH cofactor (0.6 mM) and substrate (methyl-p-tolyl sulfide or phenylacetone 2.5 mM) were added in the reaction mixture to ensure that the oxygen concentration will be the only factor affecting the kobs values The kobs values were calculated by OxyTrace+ Windows® software (Hansatech Instruments Ltd. Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article Bioactivation Metabolism: Activation Enzymes in Xenobiotic Metabolic Enzymes: Bioactivation and Antioxidant Defense (ed Chen C.-H.) 45–58 (Springer International Publishing Non-cytochrome P450 enzymes involved in the oxidative metabolism of xenobiotics: focus on the regulation of gene expression and enzyme activity Flavin-containing monooxygenases: new structures from old proteins The catalytic cycle of cytochrome P450: a fascinating choreography Chopping and changing: the evolution of the flavin-dependent monooxygenases Benzydamine metabolism in vivo is impaired in patients with deficiency of flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 Oxidation of tamoxifen by human flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO) 1 and FMO3 to tamoxifen-N-oxide and its novel reduction back to tamoxifen by human cytochromes P450 and hemoglobin Flavin-containing monooxygenase 1 catalyzes the production of taurine from hypotaurine Population-specific polymorphisms of the human FMO3 gene: significance for detoxication Flavin-containing monooxygenases in aging and disease: emerging roles for ancient enzymes Flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 (FMO3) role in busulphan metabolic pathway Characterization of flavin-containing monooxygenase 5 (FMO5) cloned from human and guinea pig: evidence that the unique catalytic properties of FMO5 are not confined to the rabbit ortholog Biocatalytic characterization of human FMO5: unearthing Baeyer-Villiger reactions in humans Cibulka, R. & Fraaije, M. W. Modes of flavin-based catalysis. In Flavin‐Based Catalysis, (eds Cibulka, R. & Fraaije, M. W.) Vol. 1, 97–124 https://doi.org/10.1002/9783527830138.ch4 (2021) The liver microsomal FAD-containing monooxygenase Spectral characterization and kinetic studies Enzymic Baeyer Villiger oxidations by flavin dependent Ancestral reconstruction of mammalian FMO1 enables structural determination revealing unique features that explain its catalytic properties Ancestral-sequence reconstruction unveils the structural basis of function in mammalian FMOs Origin of complexity in haemoglobin evolution Evolution of cyclohexadienyl dehydratase from an ancestral solute-binding protein Setting the stage for evolution of a new enzyme Dynamics and constraints of enzyme evolution Resurrecting enzymes by ancestral sequence reconstruction Robustness of reconstructed ancestral protein functions to statistical uncertainty The power to reduce: pyridine nucleotides–small molecules with a multitude of functions YASARA View—molecular graphics for all devices—from smartphones to workstations Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold Epistasis and intramolecular networks in protein evolution The oxidative half-reaction of liver microsomal FAD-containing monooxygenase Mechanistic studies of cyclohexanone monooxygenase: chemical properties of intermediates involved in catalysis Protonation status and control mechanism of flavin-oxygen intermediates in the reaction of bacterial luciferase Compound heterozygosity for missense mutations in the flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 (FM03) gene in patients with fish-odour syndrome Joint functions of protein residues and NADP(H) in oxygen activation by flavin-containing monooxygenase Flavin-containing monooxygenases: mutations Mammalian flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO) as a source of hydrogen peroxide Evolution of new enzymes by gene duplication and divergence in Encyclopedia of Geology (Second Edition) (eds Mammalian flavin-containing monooxygenases: structure/function genetic polymorphisms and role in drug metabolism Flavin-dependent monooxygenases as a detoxification mechanism in insects: new insights from the Arctiids (Lepidoptera) Bethesda (MD): National Center for Biotechnology Information (US) (2020) MAFFT online service: multiple sequence alignment interactive sequence choice and visualization ProtTest 3: fast selection of best-fit models of protein evolution RAxML version 8: a tool for phylogenetic analysis and post-analysis of large phylogenies Renewing Felsenstein’s phylogenetic bootstrap in the era of big data MrBayes 3.2: efficient Bayesian phylogenetic inference and model choice across a large model space PAML 4: Phylogenetic Analysis by Maximum Likelihood ConSurf 2016: an improved methodology to estimate and visualize evolutionary conservation in macromolecules Mutations of an NAD(P)H-dependent flavoprotein monooxygenase that influence cofactor promiscuity and enantioselectivity Mining the genome of Streptomyces leeuwenhoekii: two new type I Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenases from Atacama Desert Metabolism of the antimammary cancer antiestrogenic agent tamoxifen Flavin-containing monooxygenase-mediated N-oxidation Molecular and functional characterization of flavin-containing monooxygenases in cynomolgus macaque Baeyer–Villiger monooxygenases: tunable oxidative biocatalysts Characterization and crystal structure of a robust cyclohexanone monooxygenase Efficient biooxidations catalyzed by a new generation of self-sufficient Baeyer–Villiger monooxygenases Download references Hein Wijma for providing the AlphaFold models and performing the docking experiments Walter Lapadula for the discussions on the evolutionary history of FMOs This work was funded by: European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under grant agreement No European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No These authors contributed equally: Gautier Bailleul Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Lazzaro Spallanzani” All listed authors performed experiments and/or analyzed data established the purification and expression protocols performed the evolutionary analysis and ancestral sequence reconstruction under M.L.M produced the enzymes and performed the steady-state kinetics performed the stopped-flow and oxygen affinity experiments generated the structural models and performed the structural mechanistic analysis All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research conceived the original idea with support from A.M All authors declare no competing interests Nature Communications thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36756-x Champagne Castelnau has appointed Carine Bailleul as its new chef de caves who will replace the house’s current cellar master a small village in the foothills of the Vercors Massif in 2002 Bailleul moved to Reims to start her diploma in oenology where she worked under the wing of cellar master Elisabeth Sarcelet “Castelnau has been an integral part of Carine’s career development right from the start and supporting her during all steps that followed “She has steadily made her way up the ladder starting as an oenologist for the harvest followed by significant stints managing the disgorgement and bottling lines she became assistant to the winery manager in 2010 before being promoted to the position herself,” Castelnau’s managing director “Appointing a new chef de caves is a huge strategic decision as Carine has been working side by side with Elisabeth for so long it was logical and a credit to Elisabeth’s influence that Carine follow directly in her footsteps “We have absolute confidence that the soul and spirit of our house will grow under Carine’s dedicated leadership and vision,” he added Bailleul joins a growing number of female cellar masters Perrier-Jouët’s Severine Frerson and Krug’s Julie Cavil Castelnau has 900 hectares of vineyards across 155 crus We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings we will not be able to save your preferences This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again Metrics details Previous findings on dinosaur cartilage material from the Late Cretaceous of Montana suggested that cartilage is a vertebrate tissue with unique characteristics that favor nuclear preservation we analyze additional dinosaur cartilage in Caudipteryx (STM4-3) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol biota of Northeast China The cartilage fragment is highly diagenetically altered when observed in ground-sections but shows exquisite preservation after demineralization The histochemical stain Hematoxylin and Eosin (that stains the nucleus and cytoplasm in extant cells) was applied to both the demineralized cartilage of Caudipteryx and that of a chicken and one dinosaur chondrocyte revealed a nucleus with fossilized threads of chromatin This is the second example of fossilized chromatin threads in a vertebrate material These data show that some of the original nuclear biochemistry is preserved in this dinosaur cartilage material and further support the hypothesis that cartilage is very prone to nuclear fossilization and a perfect candidate to further understand DNA preservation in deep time To investigate chondrocyte preservation in Caudipteryx we used an array of microscopy methods that complement each other energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) we report another example of exquisitely preserved dinosaur cartilage cells with one cell showing a nucleus with intracellular chromatin threads that have retained some of their original chemistry We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of our understanding of nuclear fossilization in cartilage and of tissue preservation in the Jehol biota We also discuss the importance of chemical and molecular research on cartilage cell nuclei to further understand DNA preservation in deep time a A slide of STM4-3 cartilage (5 µm thick) stained with H&E Few extracellular matrix (ECM) and few chondrocytes are seen b A slide of adult chicken cartilage (5 µm thick) stained with the same method and shown at the same scale for comparison with Caudipteryx c A close-up on three Caudipteryx cells shows one cartilage cell with stained intracellular structures and chromatin threads in dark purple d Line drawing of (c) showing different fossilized cellular structures f Accompanying line drawing of (e) showing similar cellular structures sharing the same staining pattern as the Caudipteryx cell Because the chicken cells are still within their ECM their lacunae (lac) with potential intralacunar matrix (ilm) can be seen g High-magnification photograph (at ×100 with immersion oil) on the three Caudipteryx cells seen under transmitted light (TL) h Corresponding image taken under the polarized light (PL) While it is clear that the ironized cellular sheaths are a product of diagenesis it is unclear how and when some of the silicified cells acquired pores because cellular membranes become porous during the process of cell death the porous silicified cells may represents cells that were in the process of dying at the time of mineralization This structure is clearly delimited and internal to the cell and the area surrounding it remained unstained It is likely that innumerable other examples of preserved chondrocyte nuclei in Mesozoic material are waiting to be discovered the most logical conclusion is that the H&E staining is binding to endogenous structures and that this Caudipteryx cell preserves its cytoplasm and its nucleus The chromatin threads do not show any clearly identifiable mitotic conformation (i.e. therefore it is not possible to identify the specific cycle of this cell and it is safer to refer to these structures as fossilized threads of chromatin and this may be because the muscle fibers were too tightly packed and without breaks for any infiltration to be possible it is possible that iron has a chemical affinity with hydroxyapatite (present in bone and cartilage but it is highly likely that it comes from ground waters and precipitated into the tissues One of the fragments was embedded in EXAKT Technovit 7200 (Norderstedt Germany) until the desired optical contrast was reached (about 30 μm) Sections were observed under transmitted and polarized light using a Nikon eclipse LV100NPOL and photographed with a DS-Fi3 camera and the software NIS-Element v4.60 Sections were cut at either 5 or 10 μm on a rotary microtome (Leica Biosystems RM2265) placed into a warm water bath (at about 44 °C) and mounted on charged slides (Superfrost Plus Most slides of STM4-3 were left unstained: they were simply deparaffinized in different solutions of xylene for about 15 min and cover-slipped with mounting medium (Permount Sections were observed under transmitted light using a Nikon eclipse LV100NPOL and photographed with a DS-Fi3 camera and the software NIS-Element v4.60 Further information on research design is available in the Nature Research Reporting Summary linked to this article STM4-3 is reposited at the Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature in Linyi City All section types of the femur fragment of STM4-3 (ground and TEM sections) are currently reposited at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing The nature and origin of nucleus‐like intracellular inclusions in Paleoproterozoic eukaryote microfossils A remarkable fossil Selaginella with preserved female gametophytes Nuclei and nucleoli in embryo-like fossils from the Ediacaran Weng’an Biota Chromosomes of fossilized Metasequoia from early Oligocene of Siberia Experimental taphonomy of organelles and the fossil record of early eukaryote evolution Nucleus preservation in early Ediacaran Weng’an embryo-like fossils experimental taphonomy of nuclei and implications for reading the eukaryote fossil record Evidence of Paleozoic chromosomes from lycopod microgametophytes an early cretaceous terrestrial Lagerstätte: new discoveries and implications An exceptionally preserved lower Cretaceous ecosystem Origin of the avian predentary and evidence of a unique form of cranial kinesis in Cretaceous ornithuromorphs Cellular preservation of musculoskeletal specializations in the Cretaceous bird Confuciusornis Cartilage on the furculae of living birds and the extinct bird Confuciusornis: a preliminary analysis and implications for flight style inferences in Mesozoic birds Bailleul A. M. & Zhou Z. SEM analyses of fossilized Chondrocytes in the extinct birds Yanornis and Confuciusornis: insights on taphonomy and modes of preservation in the Jehol Biota. Front. Earth Sci. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.718588 (2021) Hematoxylin and eosin staining of tissue and cell sections Confirmation of ovarian follicles in an enantiornithine (Aves) from the Jehol biota using soft tissue analyses Tissue processing and hematoxylin and eosin staining Mechanisms and dynamics of heterochromatin formation during mammalian development: closed paths and open questions Bolton, S. N. Forensic taphonomy: investigating the post mortem biochemical properties of cartilage and fungal succession as potential forensic tools. http://hdl.handle.net/2436/579577 (2015) Estimation of postmortem interval from cartilage changes of rabbit auricle Postmortem degradation of porcine articular cartilage Phylogenetic and physiological signals in metazoan fossil biomolecules Fossil avian eggshell preserves ancient DNA Junqueira’s Basic Histology: Text and Atlas Bones and Cartilage: Developmental and Evolutionary Skeletal Biology (Elsevier/Academic Press Tissue engineering for regeneration of articular cartilage Visualization of postmortem chondrocyte damage by vital staining and confocal laser scanning 3D microscopy DNA staining in fossil cells beyond the quaternary: reassessment of the evidence and prospects for an improved understanding of DNA preservation in deep time Molecular analyses of dinosaur osteocytes support the presence of endogenous molecules Exceptional preservation of clam shrimp (Branchiopoda Eucrustacea) eggs from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota and implications for paleoecology and taphonomy Reanalysis of putative ovarian follicles suggests that Early Cretaceous birds were feeding not breeding X-ray microanalysis of fossil dinosaur bone: age differences in lead Feulgen-positive staining of the cell nuclei in fossilized leaf and fruit tissues of the Lower Eocene Myrtaceae Use of DNA-specific stains as indicators of nuclei and extranuclear substances in leaf cells of the Middle Eocene Metasequoia from Arctic Canada Cellular fine structures and histochemical reactions in the tissue of a cypress twig preserved in Baltic amber Million-year-old DNA sheds light on the genomic history of mammoths Download references We thank Zhang Shukang for making the ground-sections of Caudipteryx; Li Jiahong and Wen Xiaolei for help in sample preparation and for making TEM sections; Zhang Limin for facilitating lab access Hall for discussions about cartilage cells; Wang Xiaolin for discussions about the Jehol sediments We thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments that improved the quality of this manuscript we thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 41688103) also thanks CAS-PIFI (Chinese Academy of Sciences-President’s International Fellowship Initiative) Peer review information Communications Biology thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02627-8 A microscopic look at dinosaur cartilage from roughly 75 million years ago has turned up a cluster of exquisitely-preserved cells and they just might contain something rather familiar Dusting off the skulls of two juvenile duck-billed dinosaurs (Hypacrosaurus stebingeri) shelved after their discovery in the 1980s researchers noticed a bunch of tiny circular structures at the back - some linked together several of these circles contained a dark material reminiscent of a nucleus and others held tangled coils resembling chromosomes "I couldn't believe it, my heart almost stopped beating," recalls vertebrate paleontologist Alida Bailleul from the Chinese Academy of Sciences the research team is cautious of saying too much Leading molecular paleontologist Mary Schweitzer, who joined the research after first seeing the skulls, has claimed in the past that Tyrannosaurus rex fossils can preserve protein cells for millions of years, and it was met with much controversy "I'm not even willing to call it DNA because I'm cautious, and I don't want to overstate the results," Schweitzer told National Geographic "There is something in these cells that is chemically consistent with and responds like DNA." it would mean genetic material can survive for much One of the many reasons the scenario of dinosaur resurrection in Jurassic Park is unbelievable is because DNA is not thought to last that long - not even trapped in amber The half-life of this precious organic information has been calculated at about 521 years scientists predict it would only take about 5.3 millions years before the strands were completely unreadable Duck-billed dinosaurs were alive in Montana roughly 75 million years ago which is 15 times longer than that; if their DNA is still around today Applying a couple of DNA stains to the fossilised cartilage cells researchers now claim to have found several circular structures with potential Two of these examples were actually still linked as though caught in the final stages of cell division All of the features observed were carefully summed up and compared to stained cartilage cells from emus which showed similar intracellular contents To find out more, the team added antibodies of a dominant cartilage protein The way the organic matrix responded suggested a similar protein might be lurking inside "This immunological test supports the presence of remnants of original cartilaginous proteins in this dinosaur," Schweitzer explained But even if these ancient cartilage cells do hold remnants of intact dinosaur DNA don't expect a real-life Jurassic Park to become any more viable the information these cells might dish up would be too limited to sequence a whole genome the oldest complete genome we've put together is only 700,000 years old But even a small dose of knowledge could tell us more than we ever knew about this long-extinct herbivorous dinosaur "These new exciting results add to growing evidence that cells and some of their biomolecules can persist in deep-time," Bailleul says "They suggest DNA can preserve for tens of millions of years and we hope that this study will encourage scientists working on ancient DNA to push current limits and to use new methodology in order to reveal all the unknown molecular secrets that ancient tissues have." This idea is still very much in its infancy but it's true that recent studies have pointed towards a longer life for organic material than we thought possible In 2014, researchers in Sweden said they found fossilised nuclei and chromosomes in a 180 million-year-old fern. Last year, another study claimed to have found fossilised biomolecules in a now extinct creature over a half a billion years old While some critics in the past claim she mistook T rex cells for bacteria or other forms of contamination she and her colleagues are adamant that's not the case "It is reasonable and logical to propose that fossil dinosaur bone contains contaminating microbial communities," they write in their new paper "but the specific case that we present here… does not match the staining pattern of 'cell clusters' of contaminating biofilms." Collagen II, for instance, is not produced in microbes, so the matrix shouldn't have reacted to that antibody the comparisons to emu cells were done in a separate lab so the risk of contamination from that source is also low this ancient cartilage is simply better at preserving intracellular matter than bone there's a possibility this ancient tissue might be the carrier of unknown molecular secrets from long The study was published in the National Science Review 10.1073/pnas.1911820116 Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system. Volume 9 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.718588 Calcified cartilage is a vertebrate tissue that has unique characteristics such as a high percentage of calcification avascularity and cells with apparently delayed autolytic processes after death All of these factors suggest that fossilized cartilage may be favorable to exceptional cellular preservation but little is known about chondrocyte fossilization overall in vertebrate paleontology To further understand the spectrum of cellular preservation in this tissue we analyze the morphology and the chemistry of some intralacunar content seen in previously published avian cartilage from the Early Cretaceous Jehol biota (in Yanornis and Confuciusornis) we combine standard paleohistology with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) To better identify some fossilized structures we compare them with experimentally decayed and biofilm-invaded avian cartilage Histological images of the cartilage of Yanornis show structures that resemble cell nuclei within chondrocyte lacunae An SEM analysis on this cartilage shows that some lacunae are filled with a type of in vivo mineralization (similar to micropetrotic lacunae) and others are filled with small and spherical silicified cells surrounded by an amorphous carbonaceous material These silicified cells apparently underwent postmortem cell shrinkage and do not constitute cell nuclei non-spherical cells that are mostly made of silicon and carbon This cell morphology does not resemble that of typical healthy chondrocytes biofilm-infiltrated chondrocyte lacunae from extant material the most plausible conclusion is that the cells of Confuciusornis were partially autolyzed prior to their mineralization In Yanornis and Confuciusornis respectively silicification and alumino-silicification were responsible for chondrocyte preservation; while alumino-silicification and ironization occurred in their soft tissues This shows that alumino-silicification is quite a common mechanism of cellular and soft-tissue preservation in the Jehol biota the two different chondrocyte morphologies (spherical and filamentous) apparently reflect two taphonomical histories including different timings of postmortem permineralization (one rapid and one much more delayed) This type of analysis paired with more actuotaphonomy experiments will be needed in the future to better understand the preservation potential of chondrocytes and other cell types in the fossil record The ground-sections and the content inside the chondrocyte lacunae (i.e. called here intralacunar content) are reanalyzed at higher resolution using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) We also analyze preserved soft tissues in the samples (and compare their chemistry to that of the cells) to better understand the overall taphonomy of the specimens Ground-section with SEM and EDS analyses of the cartilage on the dentary of Yanornis (IVPP V13358) (A) Whole-view of a ground section through the rostral-most portion of the dentary of Yanornis through the tooth (to) socket (so) and the rostrolateral foramina (rlf) (B) Close-up on symphyseal calcified cartilage (cc) and originally unmineralized cartilage (ouc) (C) Close-up on some cc showing round chondrocyte lacunae filled with smaller spherical material (white arrows) which resemble cell nuclei (D) SEM image of the large rectangle in (B) (E) Close-up on the cc from the white square in (D) Some lacunae are filled with white material of the same contrast as the ECM (black arrows) and others are dark and filled with much smaller circular material (white arrows) (F) EDS mapping of the five main chemical elements present in (E) (G) Close-up image of some chondrocyte lacunae seen in E (H) EDS mapping of the five main elements seen in (G) (I)–(N) are EDS mapping of the individual elements carbon (C) The scale bar is the same from (G) through (N) SEM images of another ground-section of Yanornis (IVPP V13358) (A) SEM image on the calcified cartilage (upper part) and originally unmineralized cartilage (ouc (C) Comparison with a paraffin section of extant galliform calcified cartilage stained with H&E Some lacunae are being filled in with mineralized material (potentially similar to micropetrotic lacunae seen in mammal bone) They show similar morphologies as those of Yanornis (i.e. These tubular structures are potential blood vessels (pbv) meaning the soft tissues originally identified as ouc most likely also contains vascularized collagenous tissues It is covered by a thin layer of calcium (Ca) (E) High-magnification SEM image on two types of chondrocyte lacunae in Yanornis (F) High magnification on a micropetrotic chondrocyte lacuna apparently being filled in by calcified matrix perhaps triggered by chondrocyte death and the loss of mineralization inhibitors Ground-section with SEM and EDS analyses of the left epicleideal process of the furcula of Confuciusornis (IVPP V11521) (A) Photograph of a ground-section under transmitted light (B) Same photograph taken under the polarized light The entire element is filled with an orangey-brown filamentous network showing the chondrocyte lacunae (cl) are also filled with material of the same color (D) Another close-up showing the filamentous network that is continuous with a darker reddish material inside a vascular space (E) SEM image of tissues seen in a vascular space with no clearly recognizable structure (G)–(L) are EDS mapping of the individual elements calcium (Ca) The scale bar is the same from (G) through (L) Another ground-section with SEM and EDS analyses of the cartilage on the furcula of Confuciusornis (IVPP V11521) (A) High-magnification light microscopy image of furcular calcified cartilage (B) SEM image of the red square in A showing chondrocyte lacunae (C) Close-up on the chondrocyte lacunae in (B) It reveals filamentous material inside the lacunae (D) EDS mapping of the five main chemical elements in (C) (E)–(J) are EDS mapping of the individual elements calcium (Ca) (K) High-magnification SEM image on one chondrocyte lacuna showing a chondrocyte with a filamentous morphology some granular areas and a small circular structure in the center The scale bar is the same from (D) through (J) processed into paraffin sections and stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E The ground-sections were also observed using the SEM at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences with an FEI Quanta 450 (FEG) at 20 kV Images are shown in the BSE mode (backscattered electrons) The EDS profiles were measured as maps on the areas that the BSE images captured SEM images (on a gold-sprayed and deparaffinized slide) of a biofilm invasion in decaying avian cartilage in water for 2 weeks (A) Bacterial biofilm on top of uncalcified cartilage (uc) The bacteria (bac) are secreting a sheath of filamentous EPS The more internal chondrocytes (ch) are intact and not invaded by the biofilm (B) Image in the same sample but within some of the calcified cartilage (cc) (C) Close -up on the dissolved cc showing calcospherites and chondrocyte lacunae (cl) with altered shape The bacteria and their EPS are infiltrating into the gaps of the dissolved ECM What caused the dissolution of the calcified ECM is unclear No clear chondrocyte is visible in these lacunae meaning they underwent autolysis and/or bacterial attack The histology of the right epicleideal process of the furcula of IVPP V11521 was previously described (Wu et al., 2021). In these sections, the calcified cartilage and bone were not particularly well-preserved and the element showed extensive breakage (and/or compaction of the bony trabeculae on themselves) with a dark color in many places (Wu et al., 2021) although no mention of the word 'micropetrosis' is made by the authors) Such a processing artefact (cell shrinkage) could not have occurred to these silicified cells tissue and cell distortions mostly occur in demineralized paraffin sections the hypothesis of partially autolyzed cells makes the most sense based on the presence of extensively decayed soft tissues and the clear absence of well-preserved (originally) unmineralized cartilage attached to the calcified cartilage altogether suggesting that IVPP V11521 underwent extensive decay before or during burial and that its permineralization was especially delayed It is noteworthy that in Confuciusornis, the chondrocytes are mostly made of silicon and carbon distributed relatively equally (Figures 4G,H); but that in Yanornis the carbon was found surrounding the silicified cells (Figures 1I,K) These two different patterns are difficult to explain because if the carbonaceous material around the silicified cells in Yanornis were fossilized extracellular secretions coating the cells It is possible therefore that the carbonaceous material surrounding the shrunken cells of Yanornis are recent contaminants that occurred after ground-sectioning but this mechanism seems less plausible for the alumino-silicifed chondrocytes of Confuciusornis since they are located more internally and protected from sediments within their lacunae It cannot be ruled out that the chondrocytes were used as a template for clay mineral precipitation but silicon and aluminum may have also percolated through the fossil in aqueous solutions in a non-crystallized form Understanding this process of alumino-silicification is beyond the scope of this paper but the use of methods that can help differentiate amorphous silica from authigenic clay minerals should be encouraged in future taphonomy studies focused on Jehol material it is possible that cartilage cell morphology may more or less reflects the postmortem timing of permineralization of a fossil The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author Ethical review and approval was not required for the animal study because we used a cadaveric bird (found already dead by natural causes) and a commercially and legally obtained chicken from a chicken farm This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41688103) AMB also thanks CAS-PIFI (Chinese Academy of Sciences-President’s International Fellowship Initiative) The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher We thank Li Zhiheng for discussions and for collecting the extant galliform and Zhang Shukang for making the ground-sections The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2021.718588/full#supplementary-material Alibegović Cartilage: a New Parameter for the Determination of the Postmortem Interval? PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Fossilized Cell Nuclei Are Not that Rare: Review of the Histological Evidence in the Phanerozoic CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar First Evidence of Dinosaurian Secondary Cartilage in the Post-Hatching Skull of Hypacrosaurus Stebingeri (Dinosauria PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar DNA Staining in Fossil Cells beyond the Quaternary: Reassessment of the Evidence and Prospects for an Improved Understanding of DNA Preservation in Deep Time CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Origin of the Avian Predentary and Evidence of a Unique Form of Cranial Kinesis in Cretaceous Ornithuromorphs PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Chromosomes and Chemical Markers of DNA in Exceptionally Preserved dinosaur Cartilage CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Confirmation of Ovarian Follicles in an Enantiornithine (Aves) from the Jehol Biota Using Soft Tissue Analyses PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Evidence of the Growth Plate and the Growth of Long Bones in Juvenile Dinosaurs PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The Mineralized Osteocyte: a Living Fossil PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Forensic Taphonomy: Investigating the Post Mortem Biochemical Properties of Cartilage and Fungal Succession as Potential Forensic Tools In Situ SEM/EDS Compositional Characterization of Osteocytes and Blood Vessels in Fossil and Extant Turtles on Untreated Bone Surfaces; Different Preservational Pathways Microns Away PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Experimental Evidence for Eukaryotic Fossil Preservation: Onion Skin Cells in Silica Solution CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Articular Cartilage: a Review and Scanning Electron Microscope Study PubMed Abstract | Google Scholar Preservation of Fossils in clay Minerals; a Unique Example from the Upper Ordovician Soom Shale CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Comparison of the Calcium Content of Different Tissues Present in the Human Mandible CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Comparative Osteohistology of Some Embryonic and Perinatal Archosaurs: Developmental and Behavioral Implications for Dinosaurs doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2001)027<0039:coosea>2.0.co;2 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar A Comparative Embryological Study of Two Ornithischian Dinosaurs CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar A Diapsid Skull in a New Species of the Primitive Bird Confuciusornis CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Affects Chondrocyte Turnover in Zebrafish Vertebral Cartilage PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Cellular Preservation of Musculoskeletal Specializations in the Cretaceous Bird Confuciusornis PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Chondrogenesis and Osteogenesis Are One Continuous Developmental and Lineage Defined Biological Process CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Calcification of Cartilage from the Lamprey Petromyzon Marinus (L.) In Vitro CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Visualization of Postmortem Chondrocyte Damage by Vital Staining and Confocal Laser Scanning 3D Microscopy PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar A Cell Shrinkage Artefact in Growth Plate Chondrocytes with Common Fixative Solutions: Importance of Fixative Osmolarity for Maintaining Morphology PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Experimental Attachment of Sediment Particles to Invertebrate Eggs and the Preservation of Soft-Bodied Fossils CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The Formation of Calcified Nanospherites during Micropetrosis Represents a Unique Mineralization Mechanism in Aged Human Bone PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Exceptional Preservation of Clam Shrimp (Branchiopoda Eucrustacea) Eggs from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota and Implications for Paleoecology and Taphonomy CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Estimation of Postmortem Interval from Cartilage Changes of Rabbit Auricle CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Postmortem Degradation of Porcine Articular Cartilage PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Accelerated Bone Aging in Human Auditory Ossicles Is Accompanied by Excessive Hypermineralization Osteocyte Death and Micropetrosis,” in Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (NJ USA: WILEY 111 RIVER ST Google Scholar Collagens in the Tessellated Endoskeletons of Cartilaginous Fish (Sharks and Rays) PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Ultrastructural and Developmental Features of the Tessellated Endoskeleton of Elasmobranchs (Sharks and Rays) PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Cartilage on the Furculae of Living Birds and the Extinct Bird Confuciusornis: A Preliminary Analysis and Implications for Flight Style Inferences in Mesozoic Birds New Specimens of Yanornis Indicate a Piscivorous Diet and Modern Alimentary Canal PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Citation: Bailleul AM and Zhou Z (2021) SEM Analyses of Fossilized Chondrocytes in the Extinct Birds Yanornis and Confuciusornis: Insights on Taphonomy and Modes of Preservation in the Jehol Biota Received: 01 June 2021; Accepted: 30 July 2021;Published: 12 August 2021 Copyright © 2021 Bailleul and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Alida M. Bailleul, YWxpZGEuYmFpbGxldWxAaXZwcC5hYy5jbg== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish In the 1980s, paleontologists found a dinosaur nesting ground with dozens of nestlings in northern Montana and identified them as Hypacrosaurus stebingeri a species of herbivorous duck-billed dinosaur that lived some 75 million years ago (Cretaceous period) a team of researchers from the United States and China has investigated molecular preservation of calcified cartilage in one of the Hypacrosaurus stebingeri nestlings at the extracellular preserved fragments of proteins and chromosomes in the dinosaur chondrocytes (cartilage cells) The findings further support the idea that these original molecules can persist for tens of millions of years Reconstruction of the nesting ground of Hypacrosaurus stebingeri from the Two Medicine Formation of Montana Image credit: Michael Rothman / Science China Press “The skull bones of baby dinosaurs are not fused when they hatch some of them have cartilaginous plates that fuse later as bone forms in the spaces between them,” said Dr a paleontologist in the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology and the Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment “Seeing exquisitely preserved microscopic structures that resembled the specific cell types found only in cartilage and which would have been present in the living organism in these tissues led us to hypothesize that cellular preservation may have extended to the molecular level.” Bailleul and colleagues performed immunological and histochemical analyses of tissues from the skull of the Hypacrosaurus stebingeri hatchling and compared the results to those from an emu skull at a similar stage of development in the same pattern as this hadrosaur’s skull would have and primitive birds (ratites) like emus are the closest relatives we have alive today to non-avian dinosaurs,” said Professor Mary Schweitzer a researcher at North Carolina State University North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and the University of Lund The cartilaginous tissues and chondrocytes from the dinosaur skull reacted with antibodies to collagen II but the surrounding bone did not react with collagen II antibodies This is significant because collagen II is found only in cartilage Comparing the results to the emu confirmed the findings Isolated chondrocytes of Hypacrosaurus stebingeri and their positive response to two DNA assays: (A E) isolated chondrocytes of Hypacrosaurus stebingeri and emu photographed under transmitted light (green arrows); Hypacrosaurus stebingeri chondrocytes were successfully isolated as individual cells (A) and cell doublets (B); Hypacrosaurus stebingeri (C) and emu chondrocytes (F) showing positive response to propidium iodide to a small and circular region that locates intracellularly (white arrows); Hypacrosaurus stebingeri (D) and emu chondrocytes (G) also show a similar binding when exposed to 4′,6′-diamidino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride another DNA-specific stain (black arrows) although in both cases emu cell staining is significantly greater than in the dinosaur cells “These tests show how specific the antibodies are to each type of protein and support the presence of collagen II in these tissues,” Professor Schweitzer said which rules out contamination as the source of the molecules.” The scientists also tested the microstructures for the presence of chemical markers consistent with DNA using two complementary histochemical stains that bind to DNA fragments within cells: 4′,6′-diamidino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride and propidium iodide These chemical markers reacted with isolated cartilaginous cells supporting the idea that some fragmentary DNA may remain within the cells “We used two different kinds of intercalating stains one of which will only attach to DNA fragments in dead cells and the other which binds to any DNA,” Professor Schweitzer said meaning they are binding to specific molecules within the microstructure and not smeared across the entire ‘cell’ as would be expected if they arose from bacterial contamination.” “Although bone cells have previously been isolated from dinosaur bone this is the first time that cartilage-producing cells have been isolated from a fossil,” Dr “It’s an exciting find that adds to the growing body of evidence that these tissues cells and nuclear material can persist for millions — even tens of millions — of years.” The findings were published in the journal National Science Review own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment University of Bristol provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK View all partners Researchers in China and the US have found material in a dinosaur fossil that they claim looks like DNA. In a new paper in National Science Review Alida Bailleul and colleagues report on their discovery of remarkably well-preserved cartilage from a Late Cretaceous dinosaur dated at between 74 million and 80 million years old They highlight microstructures within the cartilage that they identify as nuclei and chromosomes from within its cells and also DNA But can this report stand the scrutiny of a sceptical world But the debates have been difficult because they hinge around particular specimens in particular laboratories. Researchers may be unable to replicate studies that claim to have found dinosaur biomolecules for all sorts of reasons. Schweitzer is quoted as saying that the sceptics “can say what they want” but they need to come up with other explanations that fit the data better One such suggestion from a sceptic, Evan Saitta at the Field Museum in Chicago, is that the biomolecules that are being detected, including the tentatively suggested DNA, probably have nothing to do with dinosaurs or even with the Cretaceous period. They are more probably from modern microbes, as he showed in a recent paper Palaeontologists have been encountering similar problems for decades now. When Michael Crichton wrote about using dinosaur DNA preserved in amber to resurrect the prehistoric creatures in the original novel of Jurassic Park in 1990, he was drawing on real science Those studying what they believe to be ancient DNA are now careful to decontaminate their samples and work in antiseptic conditions. But we now also know that DNA molecules break down very easily and will typically survive only a few years. Hundred-year-old samples of DNA from museum specimens are massively fragmented and the breakdown of their molecular structure continues rapidly By using massive computing resources, DNA from fossils maybe 50,000 years old can be reconstructed from millions of short fragments The oldest such samples are 700,000 years old – a long way from the 66 million years of the last dinosaurs On the other hand, there are no tests in the paper to identify whether the reactive molecules are from a dinosaur or from a microbe. It’s unlikely you could sequence the DNA to find out because its chains would have broken into such tiny fragments that you’d probably be unable to extract useful information from them. If complete DNA could be extracted from the fossil, then it would much more likely be from a modern source than a creature that lived 80 million years ago. Scientists are optimists. It would be fantastic if the authors of the paper are right and they have identified nucleic acid, or another biomolecule, from a dinosaur. Then the potential for cloning a long-extinct animal and a real-life Jurassic Park would be back in the frame. Unfortunately, we are probably a few steps away from an entirely convincing demonstration that these structures really are the cells of dinosaurs, or that the red-staining material is dinosaur DNA. Bailleul first came to winemaking without knowing that much about Champagne but immediately fell in love with it,” writes Smart.Castelnau chef de caves Carine Bailleul and Victor Smart Why does Champagne Castelnau age its non-vintage for five or six years on the lees rather than crate the stuff up and get it out the door it risks blurring the all-important line between the regular non-vintage and a prestige cuvée I don’t have an answer to that particular conundrum as we gather at Muse restaurant in London’s Belgravia it doesn’t seem to matter too much Muse by Tom Aikens is a small establishment that befits Castelnau a smallish maison hoping to double its production of 435,000 bottles a year while keeping its long-ageing tradition intact The top French management team (all-female) and the chef de caves are visiting Britain for a tasting in Leeds and this lunch in London You know you are in for a treat when before a lunch your ‘other half’ recognises a chef’s name and says something like “Tom Aikens – impressive!” Today Tom is at his restaurant to fuss over us – plus there’s no provision for spitting Castelnau is rebranding with the slogan “The Art of Delicacy” A tracery of bubbles now adorns its labels is brandishing a scientific paper she has co-authored Full of fiendishly complex mathematical equations But all this is a distraction from the wine and food You can tell an awful lot about how good a meal will be from that first mouthful of the bread chewy and with the right amount of tanginess 40% Meunier and 20% Pinot Noir with 30% of reserve wines and a dosage of 7g/l Le Brut makes a much bigger impression on me than it did when I tasted the product six years ago In fact the first impression delivers a level of complexity and elegance that is more like a vintage offering do we really need to move up the range at all 30% Point Noir and 20% Meunier with a 7g/l dosage this hasn’t got quite the same approachability Bailleul first came to winemaking without knowing that much about Champagne but immediately fell in love with it: the flavours including those of dry fruit immediately reminded her of standing in her grandmother’s kitchen when she was a child and the traditional Christmas desserts were being prepared Castelnau Blanc de Blancs paired with sea bass Then on to the Blanc de Blancs 2008 (ABV 12.5% £55) with an exquisite pairing of sea bass Bailleul describes the Blanc de Blancs as a Chardonnay of weight and structure rather than minerality of which 15% Pinot Noir and Meunier are vinified as red wine with red and black berry fruits on display can’t remotely compete with the 2006 and 2008 in terms of complexity and finish picnics and sunshine – the perfect antidote for the overthinker What’s apparent is that the one-Michelin starred Muse delivers far more enjoyable – and exciting – food than a three-starred restaurant I visited recently in the South of France which somewhat indulgently had turned complexity into an end in itself The Buyer TVClick below to watch The Buyer's library of online debates, videos and webinars. At first glance, the scientific explanation for the revival of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park doesn't sound too far-fetched. It was considered a genuine possibility at the time the book was written There's just one problem – trapped in amber or not, DNA doesn't like to stick around. Even in the best conditions, scientists estimate that readable DNA completely degrades in 1.5 million years The asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs occurred 65 million years ago so there are tens of million years in the interim Any scientist you care to ask will tell you that Jurassic Park is the only place you'll see dinosaurs cloned any time soon But that's not to say paleontologists are in total agreement about what constitutes the world's oldest decipherable genetic material "Saying you can clone a dinosaur – it's Jurassic Park it's not science," paleobiologist Alida Bailleul from the Chinese Academy of Sciences told ScienceAlert "We're not doing this to clone a dinosaur … we're just trying to understand if we can get access to some of the genetic material." Bailleul has become one of the faces of the discussion in this area of paleontology after discovering what she believes could be the oldest partially intact DNA ever found in a specimen of the dinosaur Hypacrosaurus Skeletal mount of Hypacrosaurus altispinus myriad discoveries have pushed back the date of the oldest readable genetic material In 2013, a 700,000-year-old horse fossil frozen in permafrost became the oldest DNA ever sequenced. Before that, the oldest sequenced genome was from the remains of an 80,000-year-old Denisovan Then, earlier this year scientists announced they'd sequenced DNA from a 1.2-million-year-old mammoth tooth – which currently holds the record for the oldest recovered and sequenced DNA some scientists think that might be the oldest we're going to get at least in terms of decipherable genetic material that's not so degraded as to be worthless DNA has a half-life of 521 years, meaning that after 521 years half of the bonds in its molecular backbone break the last bond would break after 6.8 million years but you're likely to have a lot of trouble reading anything at all after about a million years "I don't think anything more than that could be trusted," ancient DNA expert Sally Wasef from Griffith University in Australia told ScienceAlert "And it's not just that it can't be trusted It's about how much information it'd provide you but would it be enough to provide you with good information?" Every human's genome is made up of 3.2 billion 'base pairs' the building blocks of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) that code our genetic instructions Every living thing on the planet uses these DNA base pairs to store their genetic information and most mammals have a similar number of base pairs to code our every hair To think about it another way, if you provided a sample of your DNA to a genetics testing company such as 23andMe, they'd look at 640,000 of your SNPs – which sounds like a lot but they're only actually analyzing about 0.02 percent of the whole genome it gets complicated quickly if billions of those base pairs become degraded leaving only parts of the puzzle behind offering physical genetic information Wasef uses the analogy of our DNA being like a computer hard drive "If the hard drive is in a safe place where it's not exposed to a lot of factors that damage it "But, once this hard drive gets attacked by viruses Even the very well-preserved 700,000-year-old horse DNA was corrupted enough that it had to be painstakingly stitched back together by University of Copenhagen researchers while simultaneously removing any bacterial DNA that had been mixed in and also extracted the team – lead by anthropobiologist Ludovic Orlando – only managed to recover 73 proteins a far cry from the 20,000 or so that make up the entire horse genome identifying 73 proteins is a great achievement if you want to analyze genomic changes in horse species throughout the ages you'd need to know every single base pair in the genome – so we won't be seeing any ancient horse species galloping around any time soon it doesn't seem likely that there would be any useful dinosaur DNA left to find anyway However, Bailleul and her team recently discovered something that has triggered both excitement and skepticism in the ancient DNA research community – signs of DNA inside a dinosaur fossil, millions of years past its use-by date. While analyzing a baby dinosaur called Hypacrosaurus from the late Cretaceous period they found incredibly well-preserved cartilage they discovered cell-like structures that included material resembling DNA in the tests conducted "We isolated some cells of the dinosaur and we stained them with DNA stains," Bailleul says it looks like there's still some material that's reacting with the DNA stain." Above: Chromosome-like structures from the Hypacrosaurus dinosaur There's only one problem: The dinosaur in question is between 74 and 80 million years old – much too old to still have intact DNA Because of this, the findings caused some controversy in the paleontology world with many researchers believing that the sample is just too old to be genuine dinosaur DNA with the results likely reflecting some form of modern genetic contamination in the samples instead When working with a very tiny amount of potential DNA the methods scientists use are destructive – meaning that the samples are destroyed while they're being analyzed you have to know what you're aiming to achieve before you get started or you're just wasting the sample to prove DNA can live," Wasef explains Bailleul still thinks it's real dinosaur DNA her team found – not contamination of the samples there is no more DNA after 1 million years "It doesn't make scientific sense to say it's contamination … [The contaminated DNA] wouldn't just be inside the cell But DNA isn't the only way to find genetic information about ancient creatures In 2019, the same team that analyzed the horse DNA announced they had extracted genetic information from the tooth enamel of a 1.77-million-year-old species of rhino and reverse-engineered a small DNA sequence out of that information "People are looking at the ancient protein as a new tool to go where the ancient DNA stops," says Wasef ancient protein has similar issues to degraded DNA You can tell some information from reconstructing DNA from protein but it's only a small (and not exact) sample of the genome For example, each base pair (or letter) in a genome works with the base pairs next to it to make larger and larger structures. Groups of three base pairs code for specific amino acids But there are redundancies and duplicates in this code "The combination of letters of DNA can make different amino acids and those different amino acids can make the same protein," Wasef explains you can't really translate the same protein back to DNA." many scientists think ancient protein truly is the next frontier of researching ancient genetics You can still retrieve important information from these fossilized proteins and some information is better than nothing In 2016, scientists found 3.8-million-year-old proteins in ostrich eggs Although the protein wasn't sequenced in that case it still shows that protein has a much longer shelf life than DNA the techniques we have available for analyzing proteins are expected to push the age of the oldest genetic sequencing back a few million extra years although it remains to be seen whether this will extend all the way back to the reign of the dinosaurs both Wasef and Bailleul think the technologies empowering ancient genetics research are rapidly getting better Just because we can't do it today doesn't mean we won't be able to tomorrow 'Is it impossible to get ancient DNA from dinosaurs?' "But when I started doing ancient DNA in 2009 what we're doing now was considered impossible." Scientists have spotted cellular structures—and a substance that behaves like DNA—in cartilage more than 70 million years old More than 70 million years ago in what's now Montana the plant-eating hadrosaur Hypacrosaurus stebingeri roamed stebingeri nestlings has found fossils of dividing cells and chromosomes—as well as tantalizing hints of preserved DNA The study published last week in National Science Review takes a close look at two juvenile skull bones from the hadrosaur Hypacrosaurus stebingeri a plant-eating dinosaur that lived in what’s now Montana about 75 million years ago researchers can see what appear to be cells Others contain darkened balls that look just like nuclei the condensed strands of proteins and DNA that form during cell division Cartilage from one Hypacrosaurus contains two cells frozen mid-division (left) that bear darkened material consistent with nuclei contains what appear to be condensed chromosomes which is used to stain DNA in living cells small condensend dots within isolated Hypacrosaurus cells fluoresce (right) which suggests the presence of a substance that behaves like DNA “It’s a sub-cellular level of preservation that’s never been reported before in a vertebrate,” says Alida Bailleul a postdoctoral researcher at China’s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology and lead author of the new study the researchers applied stains that bind to DNA in living cells to the bits of dinosaur skull These stains stuck to particular spots within the fossil cells making them glow in fluorescent red and blue whatever the stains are binding to derived from the dinosaur’s original molecules not an outside contaminant such as bacteria Does the discovery mean we can sequence dino DNA The researchers haven’t tried extracting DNA from the fossil cells so they haven’t confirmed whether the material is unaltered DNA or some kind of fossil byproduct of genetic material breaking down Scientists also caution that if DNA is present within the dinosaur cells “We’re not doing the Jurassic Park thing,” Bailleul says “This research is still very much in its infancy, but the possibilities are absolutely thrilling if we suspend our disbelief, dig into the data, and continue to test and refine our ideas about molecular preservation in fossils,” says David Evans a paleontologist at the Royal Ontario Museum who wasn’t involved with the study but he also found some Hypacrosaurus skulls among the remains Horner and his colleagues embedded some of them in resin and then ground them down into sections slightly thicker than strands of hair The slides with these little bits of dinosaur skull sat in obscurity for over two decades at the Museum of the Rockies until Bailleul—then a Ph.D student at the museum—pulled them out in 2010 to study the small joints and sutures that hold the skulls together As she looked at the thin sections under her microscope Bailleul noticed little circular configurations in one nestling’s supraoccipital bone which formed part of the back of the skull Researchers found the exceptionally preserved Hypacrosaurus cells within the supraoccipital a bone that formed part of the back of its skull this part of the skull would have turned from cartilage to bone and Bailleul noticed that many of them had smaller Some even contained tangled coils that reminded Bailleul of chromosomes “I freaked out a little bit—moving away from the microscope Bailleul was so stunned by what she had seen that she kept it to herself for a couple days—but one of Horner’s former Ph.D. students, North Carolina State University paleontologist Mary Schweitzer had previously published evidence that dinosaur fossils could preserve cells and—controversially—even traces of their original proteins the team wanted to get a better sense of what the fossils’ were made of Bailleul visited Schweitzer’s lab in Raleigh double-checking their work with fresh emu tissue samples (in a different lab the researchers applied chemical stains to the fossils that bind to cartilage which suggested that the developing bits of dinosaur skull had not yet hardened into bone when the animals died Bailleul and Schweitzer then isolated some of the fossil cells and applied propidium iodide and DAPI two chemical stains widely used in medical research to visualize fresh DNA the emu cells better attracted the stains—but the stains also glommed on to specific points within the fossilized dinosaur cells “I’m not even wiling to call it DNA because I’m cautious and I don’t want to overstate the results,” Schweitzer says “There is something in these cells that is chemically consistent with and responds like DNA.” frozen in the permafrost since the animal’s death—and the Hypacrosaurus bones are about a hundred times older which makes them imperfect time capsules in death The preserved dinosaur cells were probably embedded in cartilage The structure of cartilage may have protected the cells inside—and their chemical constituents—more effectively calcified cartilage may be an ideal place to search for exceptionally preserved biomolecules in other fossils as this tissue may be less prone to contamination and internal decay than bone,” Evans says the cells become trapped and isolated in their matrix and are more likely to be preserved in a sealed micro-environment.” the bonds might help stabilize DNA for the long haul She adds that more chemical analysis would be needed to confirm the idea a paleogenomicist at the University of California says that ancient-DNA researchers ignore fragments shorter than 30 base pairs since pieces of genetic material that tiny don’t contain enough information to be accurately placed within a genome Slotting DNA fragments that small into a full genome would be like trying to find a specific sentence in Moby Dick while knowing only that it contains the word “whale.” But fossil DNA that can’t be sequenced could still be useful. Wiemann and others have shown that even highly altered fossil proteins can preserve valuable information, such as an animal’s metabolic rate, and the same could be true for the remnants of DNA. More chemical analysis is needed to pin down precisely what’s contained in these bits of dino skull, but Bailleul hopes that in the future, scientists will fully understand how DNA can fossilize—and what genetic information those preserved bits might contain. “We would be crazy scientists if we left it there and did nothing,” Bailleul says. “I know that it’s preliminary work, but if no one starts with something, then it’s never going to go anywhere.” Watch your inbox over the next few days for photos captured in mistnet on the outskirts of Wanang village their jelly matrix will limit ventilation to the egg masses starving out especially dense eggs like this (La Jolla Castor canadensis."},"title":"Where does vanilla flavoring come from The silken case itself is visible with the greyish material (a mix of caterpillar saliva and silk) the first black man to make it to the top of the country and western music field From Twenty Hand-Coloured Prints after Original Paintings of Famous American Thoroughbreds by Edward Troye (1808–1874) image: 11 3/8 x 14 15/16 in.","ttl":"2B0GHKP.jpg"},"title":"The life of Lexington used to make tequila on the grounds of the Fortaleza Tequila Distillery."},"title":"Visit Jalisco The Haenyeo make a living out of harvesting the sea floor catching conch They freedive to depths of 20 meters and hold their breath for minutes But the Haenyoe is an endangered 'species' the sea was abundant with them – around 30.000 of them would take to the sea almost daily they hardly number 5000 and more than two-thirds are over 60 years old Here are a few experts love."}],"topicName":"Lifestyle"},"rightpromo":{"id":"2c88edf9-e45c-48a7-a57e-3c8667c53fbc","cmsType":"TileGridModule","tiles":{"id":"drn:src:natgeo:unison::prod:441fde9e-010c-4a0c-a09d-296ee7cb9690","href":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/lifestyle/article/best-compact-cameras","cmsType":"ArticleNavTile","ratio":"4x3","title":"The 10 best compact cameras for travel deep-black skull belongs to the most complete specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex on display in Europe this scientifically important but privately owned skeleton is currently at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin Discovered in 2010 in Montana’s famed Hell Creek Formation of the late Cretaceous the 40-foot-long fossil took four years to excavate and prepare A closeup shows the spine and tail bristles on an incredibly well-preserved fossil of the herbivorous dinosaur Psittacosaurus mongoliensis on display at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt These bristles are likely related to the feathers found on other dinosaurs and may have been used for communication and display The dark material seen here is the preserved remains of soft tissue This picture shows armored plates on the spectacularly complete fossil of an ankylosaur named Borealopelta markmitchelli; the lighter bands represent more flexible tissue between this dinosaur’s tough defensive exterior Discovered in 2011 at an oil sands mine in the Canadian state of Alberta the fossil bears a crack from the impact of a tractor shovel it was rescued from the mining machinery before more damage occurred After six years and 7,000 hours of preparation it is now on display at the Royal Tyrell Museum this panorama shows the massive reconstruction of a titanosaur sauropod installed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in January 2016 This 122-foot behemoth may be the largest dinosaur that ever lived and was described as a new species dubbed Patagotitan mayorum in 2017 based on a number of fossils excavated from the Chubut region of Patagonia in Argentina Champagne Castelnau has announced that Carine Bailleul has become its new chef de caves had her first taste of Castelnau’s cellars when her mentor took her on as an intern during her studies towards a national diploma as an oenologist at Reims Sarcelet soon offered her a permanent position from which start Bailleul worked her way up from oenologist for her first harvest to assistant winery manager in 2010 “Appointing a new chef de caves is a huge strategic decision Luckily as Carine has been working side by side with Elisabeth for so long it was logical and a credit to Elisabeth's influence that Carine follow directly in her footsteps,” said Pascal Prudhomme “We have absolute confidence that the soul and spirit of our House will grow under Carine's dedicated leadership and vision.” Bailleul's appointment will help maintain the select number of female chef de caves in Champagne BEIJING -- A group of scientists have discovered a fossil bird dating back about 110 million years which is the first ever found to have an unlaid egg in its abdomen belonging to a group called the Enantiornithes which was abundant around the world and co-existed with dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period The incredibly well preserved fossil was discovered in Yumen city it was only after a small fragment was extracted and analyzed under the microscope that the research team at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences realized the unusual tissue was an egg Detailed analysis of the fragment indicated the bird's reproductive system was not behaving normally The shell consists of two layers instead of one as in normal healthy bird eggs indicating the egg was retained too long inside the abdomen This condition occurs in living birds as a result of stress The unlaid egg is coated with a second layer This abnormality has also been documented in sauropod dinosaurs and did not show the correct proportions of a healthy egg The abnormalities suggest the egg may have been the cause of death of the "mother bird," said Bailleul in which the egg becomes stuck inside the body is a serious and lethal condition that is fairly common in small birds undergoing stress including parts of the shell rarely seen in the fossil record such as traces of the egg membrane and the cuticle mostly made of proteins and other organic materials Scanning Electron Microscopy revealed the cuticle (the outer most protective layer of the shell) was made of very small spherules of minerals Although never before reported in a fossil egg in living birds that nest in environments prone to infections these protect developing chick embryos from microbes "This new specimen is arguably one of the most interesting Cretaceous fossil birds yet discovered informing on more reproductive issues than any other Mesozoic fossil bird," said Bailleul The finding has been published online in the journal Nature Communications (ANS - Bailleul) - The Salesian Institute of the Immaculate Conception of Bailleul is carrying out a vast project in the current school year to support the initiatives of the solidarity association of "Les clowns de l'espoir" (Clowns of Hope) committed to bringing a smile to sick children The 780 students of the institute have not only pledged to raise funds "the solidarity project would not have made sense if the young people had not been able to give joy." "for the competition of the 'Citizen Challenge' (a pastoral operation involving the Salesian centers of the entire "France-Belgium South" Province a/n) We did not want to elaborate a new project but preferred to give another character to an existing project on which we worked hard throughout the year." The representatives of the association visited the Bailleu Institute and the students immediately started to organize a charity event in their favor But they soon realized that the gesture of solidarity had a too simple meaning So then the approach changed radically: instead of focusing on the amount of money to be collected they moved on to the message: "We are all able to give a smile." In this way the students had the opportunity to carry out the project firsthand: the class representatives passed through the classrooms to transmit this message and managed to mobilize all the young people in this process the involvement of young people fully adhered to what is the goal of the association "The Clowns of Hope": to bring hope and joy to hospitalized children explained the different phases of the project carried out during the year: October: meeting with class delegates to explore and discuss the project and plan the necessary steps; November: sale of the classic red clown noses during recess - with photos - and at the parents' meetings; December: decoration of the institute's Christmas tree with garlands of red noses; January: day of Open Doors of the institute on the theme of the circus during the Mass the billboard composed with the photos taken in the previous months was brought to the altar with students and professors with a red nose; The students and adults who wished to became sponsors of a competition for the benefit of the association "Les clowns de l'espoir" June: all that remains to be done is to deliver the check to the association with the amount collected during the year ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007 This site also uses third-party cookies to improve user experience and for statistical purposes By scrolling through this page or by clicking on any of its elements In a development sure to alarm both Sam Neill and Chris Pratt, researchers announced the recent discovery of what they believe to be actual dinosaur DNA. So, you know, start booking your theme park tickets to the Isla Sorna now The alleged genetic material was recovered from the fossilized skull of a duck-billed dinosaur known as Hypacrosaurus that roamed the planet 75 million years ago Researchers published this shocking study in the journal National Science Review they claim that "the organic matrix surrounding the fossilized cartilage cells reacted to antibodies of Collagen II." Cool In English: some of the material recovered from the dino skull carried the chemical signatures of chromosomes and DNA preserved in the nucleus of cartilage cells Dr. Alida Bailleul, the study's lead author, issued a statement with co-author Mary Schweitzer to accompany the publication "This immunological test supports the presence of remnants of original cartilaginous proteins in this dinosaur," explained Schweitzer Those are the cells with the preserved nuclei containing the alleged dinosaurian DNA my heart almost stopped beating," added Bailleul According to Fox News Bailleul and her team are touting this discovery as truly extraordinary Preserved chromosomes of this age have only been discovered once before This kind of cellular preservation in a dinosaur fossil is one-of-a-kind Bailleul was quick to point out to Fox that "Nothing suggests that it is contamination and that it is most likely remnants of fossilized dinosaur DNA." "Not so fast," says the scientific community Organic material including nucleic acids like DNA and RNA are "understood to be among the least stable biomolecules over long periods of time and under the heat of deep burial during fossilization," said Evan Saitta of the Integrative Research Center at the Field Museum in Chicago Saitta did admit that the age of the samples collected by Bailleul and her team is "striking." So when can we feed the velociraptors in Jurassic Park The genetic material trapped inside the fossilized protein cells cannot even be extracted yet so it's a long way off from being sequenced Even if the team can eventually extract and study the individual nucleotides it's exceedingly likely that the material only contains a fraction of the complete genome the fossilization process might have left even the fragments we do have warped We'll just have to keep waiting for that mosquito trapped in amber.