A team of researchers in Panama has found the fossil of a turtle that lived 6 million years ago, containing DNA that had only been reported once before, “in the entire fossil record of vertebrates on the planet,” in the remains of a dinosaur. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) reported Thursday.
It is a partially preserved shell of a Lepidochelys turtle from the Upper Miocene of Panama, and is the oldest fossil ever found from that genus, as described in an 11-page article published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
These remains were found on the Caribbean coast of Panama, and were studied by a team of paleontologists led by Dr. Edwin Cadena, of the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia, a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution, whose STRI is located in Panama. A discovery that carries “wonderful stories”
Dr Cadena described to EFE “very exciting” the discovery of DNA in the fossil of a sea turtle from the genus Lepidochelys, which includes species known as the olive ridley and olive ridley turtles.
“I repeated the experiment with the same conditions at least three times to make sure I got the same response,” explained Cadena, director of graduate studies and professor at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Rosario.
The preservation of cells called osteocytes and within them structures similar to the cell nucleus that react with a solution called DAPI indicating the presence of DNA remnants is something that “has only previously been reported in a dinosaur fossil in the entire fossil record.” “One of the vertebrates on the planet,” a Smithsonian statement said.
“It has been a big challenge trying to find and detect DNA residues in the tissues of organisms that lived millions of years ago, because “you have to be very careful when processing samples to avoid contamination,” Cadena told EFE. “With current DNA in the laboratory, “And also experimenting with hundreds of cells, as the preservation of original remains such as proteins and DNA in fossils is not uniform.”
“We have dreamed through cinema of the topic of DNA preserved in fossils dating back several or hundreds of millions of years, and although we cannot say more yet about the presence of traces of DNA in some of them, it is an area of paleontology that certainly… With the researcher predicting that technological progress will be able to tell us wonderful stories in the coming decades.
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They found a turtle fossil with DNA, the second in vertebrate history
Lepidochelys is a genus of sea turtle that includes the endangered Kemp’s ridley turtle. The evolutionary history of this genus is not well known because there is no indisputable fossil record for the group, notes the article describing the discovery.
“This fossil shows us that some current sea turtle groups have remained virtually unchanged for nearly 6 million years, such as the genus Lepidochelys, for which we report the oldest known fossil record in this paper,” Cadena said.
In turn, this discovery “tells us that throughout geological time, these turtles continued to inhabit the same places.” Many of these ecosystems are threatened today.
Keep exploring for more and better fossils
“We now want to explore other groups of fossils found in the same area as this fossil turtle and see if there is also preservation of tissues and DNA remains in fossils of cetaceans or fish. We also want to expand the chemical and molecular analyzes on the samples we know,” Cadena said. “It has the best state of preservation.”
He added that the fossil record of Panama’s Caribbean coast and elsewhere in the country and region “still holds many secrets that need to be studied.” In my opinion, we must continue with patience and curiosity to explore the rocks of this region of the continent in search of more and better fossils that tell the story of today’s biodiversity.
With information from EFE.
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