Hadrosaur Proteins Sequenced

jd writes "In a follow-up study to the one on proteins found in a T. Rex bone, the team responsible for the T. Rex study sequenced proteins found in an 80-million year old Hadrosaur fossil. According to the article, the proteins found confirm the results of the T. Rex study, proving that what was found in T. Rex was not a result of modern contamination, as had been claimed by skeptics, but was indeed the genuine thing: real dinosaur protein. Furthermore, despite the new fossil being 12 million years older, they claim they got more out — eight collagen peptides and 149 amino acids from four different samples. This, they say, places the Hadrosaur in the same family as T. Rex and Ostriches, but that not enough was recovered to say just how close or distant the relationship was."

Re:The egg is the key.

[Anonymous Coward]

> The size of the egg [wikimedia.org] is amazing.
> It is about the size of a soccer ball.

A very small soccer ball!

A regulation soccer ball is 10 inches or 25 cm in diameter.

Ostrich egg is 5-6 inches or 12-15 cm diameter.

Re:The egg is the key.

[NeoSkandranon]

Dietary cholesterol actually doesn't affect the body the way once thought (google around if you like)

Probably the only way cholesterol could kill a gorilla is if it were dropped into a vat of it :)

149 amino acids?

[jc42]

Wow! Human DNA contains only 20 amino acids. (Actually, there is a 21st, but it's extremely rare.) I wonder what the Hadrosaur was doing with so many of them.

It sounds like our world really lost a lot at the K-T impact event.

(And isn't it wonderful how ambiguous the English language can be, especially in the hands of journalists. ;-)

Re:149 amino acids?

[rnaiguy]

As noted, the correct statement is that DNA (of all known organisms) directly encodes exactly 20 different amino acids. There can be a few more, but they are not directly encoded, but added/modified later.
Also, I don't see the ambiguity. If someone found a new manuscript of Shakespeare's that consisted of 10,000 letters, would you complain that the English language only has 26 letters?

Re:149 amino acids?

[rnaiguy]

nope, same 20 amino acids now as then, they were just able to identify a sequence that was 149 amino acids long. however, you bring up a good point. I wonder if their experiment was designed to detect amino acids that no longer exist in modern animals. However, the fact that the same amino acids are shared across all living organisms known today (which diverged billions of years ago) makes it unlikely that there were different amino acids in animals 65 million years ago.