Traces of ancient deoxyribonucleic acid appear to have been found within the 6 - million - twelvemonth - sure-enough fossil osseous tissue of an extinct turtle . This is staggeringly quondam grounds of DNA and may suggest that genetic material can last much longer than antecedently appreciate .
find along the Caribbean coast of Panama , the fogy consists of a broken eggshell , but the rest skeleton has since been lose . It belongs to a species of turtle in the genusLepidochelys , which still know today in the form of Kemp ’s ridley sea turtles and Olive ridley ocean turtles . The exact mintage of the fossil is not certain , although it ’s suspected to have belonged to a new discovered extinct specie .
In a young work , scientists explain how they may have found vestige ofDNAlocked away in the turtle ’s preserved bone cells , called osteocyte . reckon the osteocytes under a microscope , the squad noticed “ nucleus - corresponding ” internal social organization . Since the nucleus is the organelle in cell that houses DNA , they carried out a test for the presence of the genetic fabric , and , to their surprisal , it tested positively charged .
The researchers found preserved bone cells in the carapace, which exhibited structures like the nucleus of a cell, where DNA traces were found.Image credit: Dr. Edwin Cadena, Universidad del Rosario and STRI
“ Within the entire vertebrate fogy platter on the major planet , this had only been antecedently report in two dinosaur dodo , including one of Tyrannosaurus male monarch , ” Dr Edwin Cadena , bailiwick generator from the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá , Colombia , and a inquiry comrade at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama said in astatement .
DNA of course breaks down over clock time , which is unfortunate when you considerhow much informationabout the distant past it could curb . While this trial result is moderately good evidence that inherited material is within the polo-neck shell osteocytes , it ’s not unmediated substantiation . To corroborate the presence of genetic material , the researchers would have directly distinguish the DNA and sequence it .
The oldest deoxyribonucleic acid that has been recovered and sequencedcame froma 1.2 million - class - old mammoth find buried in the Siberian permafrost . At five times the age of this , the grounds of desoxyribonucleic acid in the ancient polo-neck suggests that genetic material might potentially remain preserved for millions upon millions of years , even in lovesome environment that are n’t friendly to DNA molecule .
“ These datum present the potential for DNA to remain in specimens that are both millions of eld sure-enough and are from lower latitude , which gainsay traditional image of biomolecular saving , ” the study authors write .
understand the genetics of the ancientLepidochelysturtlewould be particularly interesting since very little is live about their history or phylogenesis . Just seven specie of sea turtles live today , and most are face a 10000 of threat to their existence .
“ The Caribbean fogy from Panama that we have make do to deliver over the years are helping to rewrite the account of marine craniate of the Isthmus , ” explain Carlos De Gracia , sketch co - writer and a doctoral beau affiliated with Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute who is funded by Panama ’s Office for Science and Technology .
The study is release in theJournal of Vertebrate Paleontology .
