Could DNA Have Survived 6 Million Years Inside a Turtle Shell?

A team of paleontologist study the fossilized plate of a ocean turtle from the Miocene Epoch find something surprising and perhaps impossible : preserved off-white cells that they consider may moderate ancient DNA , the molecule that holds the genetic information of living thing .

In an ancient polo-neck shell constitute on Panama ’s Piña Beach , northwest of Panama City , the team identify osteocytes , or os cells . They then used a type of discolouration telephone DAPI to attempt to mark the DNA in the fossilized cell social system . Their findings werepublishedlast week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology .

“ Within the entire vertebrate fossil phonograph record on the major planet , this had only been antecedently reported in two dinosaur fossil , include one of Tyrannosaurus male monarch , ” said study lead writer Edwin Cadena , a fossilist at the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá , Colombia , in a Smithsonianrelease .

Researchers excavating a fossilized turtle shell from Panama’s Caribbean coast.

Researchers excavating a fossilized turtle shell from Panama’s Caribbean coast.Photo:Carlos De Gracia, University of Vienna and STRI

Cadena is advert to paper of osteocyte preserved in a T. rex and Brachylophosaurus canadensis , a hadrosaur , made in 2013 . In the new paper , the researcher also referenced thediscovery of ossified cartilagein a roughly 120 - million - yr - one-time Caudipteryx , which some palaeontologist believe contained evidence of fossilized biomolecules , though that is controversial .

The ocean turtleneck dodo belonged to a member of the genus Lepidochelys , which is represent today by the olive ridley and Kemp ’s ridley ocean turtles . The researcher conceive the ancient phallus of Lepidochelys may be a raw species , but they withheld from making that determination due to a deficiency of skeletal grounds ; no skull , plastron , or branch bones were find . The part bear on shell — the oldest recorded extremity of the genus — is now house at the Museo Paleontológico de Panamá in Panama City .

When organism fossilise , they fossilise all the mode down to a molecular layer . Under a microscope , ancient bone can yieldinformation about T. rex development ratethrough the fossilization of their blood vessels anddetails of sauropod biologythanks to preservation of their proteins . The trouble is that DNA speedily degrades , mean that ideal condition are needed for the mote to preserve on thousand - year ( and indeed , million - twelvemonth ) timescales .

Clockwise from top-left: an overlay photo of the DAPI stain and the brightfield photos; another overlay showing the location of a stained nucleus-like structure; a group of osteocytes with nucleus-like structures but no DAPI stain reaction; a group of osteocytes with no nucleus-like structures and no DAPI stain reaction.

In scrutinizing the shell under a stereomicroscope , the investigator come up pearl microstructures were exceptionally preserve . stemma vessel , collagen , and osteocytes were all identifiable . The squad also pick up bundles of material in the osteocyte they described in the paper as “ nucleus - like”—the core group being the organelle in electric cell that contains DNA .

The squad stained the osteocyte with DAPI , a solution that glows blue when it interacts with DNA . Lo and behold , some of the nucleus - like regions turned blue once the stain was apply .

“ No chemical reaction to DAPI was note outside the ‘ nucleus - similar ’ national anatomical structure of the osteocyte , supporting the likely endogenous origin of these traces , ” the researchers wrote . “ However , not all osteocyte that have this ‘ lens nucleus - like ’ internal structure show chemical reaction to DAPI … It is also possible that DNA stay are not preserved in all cells or have been extremely degraded , preventing them from reacting with DAPI . ”

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In other words , it could be evidence of ancient fossilized DNA , but it ’s no punishing trial impression . The old DNA yet establish and sequence wasdiscovered in million - year - former mammoth teethfrom Siberia in 2021 . That DNA was carry on in permafrost , theuntil - recentlypermanently glacial filth that preserve Pleistocene creatures likecave lion , bears , and mammothsto a arresting academic degree , often saving the fauna ’ soft tissue and fur . And back in 2019 , a different team of researcher negociate torecover genetic informationfrom a 1.7 - million - year - old rhinoceros tooth , though no deoxyribonucleic acid was reclaim from the specimen .

“ On the irrefutable side , at least this specimen is on the same lodge of magnitude as the former , non - controversial DNA sequence — but it is still several million years previous and from a much harsher environment for DNA saving , ” Evan Saitta , a researcher at the University of Chicago , told Gizmodo in an e-mail . “ On the negative side , the conclusion are still reached through limited , tough method , such as these histochemical stains . If these indicators of desoxyribonucleic acid are reliable positives in all of these ancient fossil , then sequence it ! ”

Saitta and his colleaguesattempted to sequence ancient DNAfrom the bone of a Centrosaurus in 2020 , and they base a modern microbiome but no ancient DNA . “ There comes a point where claims must meet realism , and this is the physical process of skill , ” Saitta say .

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“ When researchers consider mammoths , molecular data is often used to avail retrace their evolutionary relationships , ” he add . “ When researchers study much older organism , such as dinosaurs , I see no one utilize DNA or protein succession , despite all the fervor and ‘ belief ’ in their existence over the decades . ”

It ’s a improbable order to show that something that oppose in a fossilized nucleus - like structure is truly the tight - degrade mote DNA . According to investigator whospoke to Gizmodo about the Caudipteryx fossilin 2021 , germ in the dinosaur remains ( like those find oneself in Saitta ’s Centrosaurus ) or mineral infill of the space that once house dinosaur DNA may be reacting to the dye and stains applied .

That may be the case here , but it may not . What ’s clear is that such ancient deoxyribonucleic acid has not yet been identified for certain , and not in any way that ’s sequenceable .

Timedesert