Dinosaur egg colour had a single evolutionary origin

Wiemann, Jasmina; Yang, Tzu-Ruei; Norell, Mark A.

doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0646-5

Cited by 72 publications

(182 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…This fossilization pathway is centered around suitable nucleophilic amino acid residues in a protein reacting with reactive carbonyl species (RCS) formed during early diagenesis (9). These RCS can be derived from either lipids or sugars (12,13), thus connecting protein information to core metabolites. Lipoxidation and glycoxidation processes are generally known to occur under alkaline pH conditions and are catalyzed by abundant transition metal ions and dissolved phosphate in the pore water (9,12,14).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic and physiological signals in metazoan fossil biomolecules

2020

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Proteins, lipids, and sugars establish animal form and function. However, the preservation of biological signals in fossil organic matter is poorly understood. Here, we used high-resolution in situ Raman microspectroscopy to analyze the molecular compositions of 113 Phanerozoic metazoan fossils and sediments. Proteins, lipids, and sugars converge in composition during fossilization through lipoxidation and glycoxidation to form endogenous N-, O-, and S-heterocyclic polymers. Nonetheless, multivariate spectral analysis reveals molecular heterogeneities: The relative abundance of glycoxidation and lipoxidation products distinguishes different tissue types. Preserved chelating ligands are diagnostic of different modes of biomineralization. Amino acid–specific fossilization products retain phylogenetic information and capture higher-rank metazoan relationships. Molecular signals survive in deep time and provide a powerful tool for reconstructing the evolutionary history of animals.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic and physiological signals in metazoan fossil biomolecules

2020

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“…In this respect, Raman spectroscopy used in Wiemann et al (2018) and to detect preserved cuticle (an outermost proteinous layer of an eggshell) or pigments in the fossil eggshell is a promising technique because it is nondestructive and provides high spatial and spectral resolution without complicated preparation steps (Smith and Clark, 2004;Schweitzer et al, 2008;Olcott Marshall and Marshall, 2015). In addition, Raman spectroscopy is useful in appraising the thermal maturity of preserved organic materials (or at least carbonaceous material) in fossils (Hartkopf-Fröder et al, 2015;Olcott Marshall and Marshall, 2015 and references therein).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fossil eggshells and vertebrate fossils in general, Raman spectroscopy has not been widely used except for a few pioneering studies (e.g., Piga et al, 2011;Thomas et al, 2011;Lee Y.C. et al, 2017), but as shown in Wiemann et al (2018), , and Stein et al (2019), it has a great potential in vertebrate paleontology as it is in archeology (Smith and Clark, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raman Spectroscopy Detects Amorphous Carbon in an Enigmatic Egg From the Upper Cretaceous Wido Volcanics of South Korea

et al. 2020

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Raman spectroscopy has been widely used in micropaleontology and organic geochemistry to identify carbonaceous materials and evaluate their thermal maturity in fossils or metasedimentary rocks. Meanwhile, fossil egg researches have mostly focused on biomineralized calcite, but preserved carbonaceous (or possibly organic) materials inside the eggshells have been usually neglected until recently. Here we report an enigmatic egg from the Wido Volcanics (Upper Cretaceous) of South Korea that was analyzed using diverse methods including polarized light microscope, scanning electron microscope, electron probe microanalyzer, electron backscatter diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy. The eggshell not only shows the crystallography of archosaurian eggshells but also contains peculiar dark bands, which were previously known as the trait of fossil and modern Crocodyliformes eggshells. Raman spectroscopic analysis showed that the dark bands are mainly due to amorphous carbon, as evidenced by the clear graphite (G) and disordered (D) bands. The deconvolution of amorphous carbon peaks and resultant parameters made it possible to infer the paleotemperature inscribed in the eggshell. The result suggests that preserved amorphous carbon in the fossil eggshells can be identified using Raman spectroscopy and Raman parameters may make it possible to compare the thermal maturity of spatiotemporally diverse fossil eggshells. The biogenicity of the dark band is not clear because Raman spectroscopic analysis is not sufficient to confirm biogenicity. However, overall distribution of the dark band may imply the biogenic origin. It is apparent that the material of this study is not a dinosaur egg but might belong to a crocodyliform or choristoderan egg, and even other non-dinosaur archosaur can be a candidate as well.

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“…Raman is particularly useful because it can distinguish among the main classes of pigments known to occur in mollusc shells (melanins, tetrapyrroles, and carotenoids). For instance, Raman has been used to identify melanins in hair and feathers and cuttlefish ink; tetrapyrroles have been identified in molluscan shells, brachiopod shells, bird eggs, and dinosaur eggs; and carotenoids, carotenoproteins or structurally modified carotenoids have been identified in molluscs, brachiopods, and corals …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Colour in bivalve shells: Using resonance Raman spectroscopy to compare pigments at different phylogenetic levels

Wade

Pugh

Nightingale

et al. 2019

J Raman Spectroscopy

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Several studies have suggested that shell colour may be phylogenetically distributed within the phylum Mollusca, but this pattern is confounded by our ignorance of the homology of colour and lack of understanding about the identity of most molluscan pigments. We use resonance Raman spectroscopy to address this problem by examining bivalve pigments producing a range of colours and compare spectra from taxa at different phylogenetic levels. The spectra of most shell pigments exhibited a skeletal signature typical of partially methylated polyenes, possibly modified carotenoids, with the strongest peaks occurring between 1,501–1,540 cm−1 and 1,117–1,144 cm−1 due to the C═C (ν1) and C–C (ν2) stretching modes, respectively. Neither pigment class nor mineral structure differentiated Imparidentia and Pteriomorphia. Spectral acquisitions for purple pigments for two species of Asaphis suggest that identical or nearly identical pigments are shared within this genus, and some red pigments from distantly related species have similar spectra. Conversely, two species with brown shells have distinctly different pigments, highlighting the difficulty in determining the homology of colour even within a single class of pigments. Curiously, we were unable to detect any Raman activity for green‐coloured shell or pigment peaks for the yellow area of Codakia paytenorum, suggesting that these colours are due to structural elements or a pigment that is quite different from those observed in other taxa examined to date. Our results are consistent with the idea that classes of pigments are evolutionarily ancient but heritable modifications may be specific to clades.

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Dinosaur egg colour had a single evolutionary origin

Cited by 72 publications

References 28 publications

Phylogenetic and physiological signals in metazoan fossil biomolecules

Phylogenetic and physiological signals in metazoan fossil biomolecules

Raman Spectroscopy Detects Amorphous Carbon in an Enigmatic Egg From the Upper Cretaceous Wido Volcanics of South Korea

Colour in bivalve shells: Using resonance Raman spectroscopy to compare pigments at different phylogenetic levels

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