Paleontologists found 'nucleus-like' structures in a Miocene turtle fossil from Panama.
A team of paleontologists studying the fossilized shell of a sea turtle from the Miocene Epoch found something surprising and perhaps impossible: preserved bone cells that they believe may contain ancient DNA, the molecule that holds the genetic information of living things.In an ancient turtle shell found on Panama’s Piña Beach, northwest of Panama City, the team identified osteocytes, or bone cells.
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.
“No reaction to DAPI was observed outside the ‘nucleus-like’ internal structures of the osteocytes, supporting the potential endogenous origin of these traces,” the researchers wrote. “However, not all osteocytes that have this ‘nucleus-like’ internal structure show reaction to DAPI…It is also possible that DNA remains are not preserved in all cells or have been highly degraded, preventing them from reacting with DAPI.”be evidence of ancient fossilized DNA, but it’s no hard proof.
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