Molecular preservation of the pigment melanin in fossil melanosomes

Johan Lindgren (), Per Uvdal, Peter Sjövall, Dan E. Nilsson, Anders Engdahl, Bo Pagh Schultz and Volker Thiel
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Johan Lindgren: Lund University
Per Uvdal: MAX-IV laboratory, Lund University
Peter Sjövall: SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Chemistry and Materials
Dan E. Nilsson: Lund University
Anders Engdahl: MAX-IV laboratory, Lund University
Bo Pagh Schultz: Museum Salling – Fur Museum
Volker Thiel: Geobiology Group, Geoscience Centre, University of Göttingen

Nature Communications, 2012, vol. 3, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Fossil feathers, hairs and eyes are regularly preserved as carbonized traces comprised of masses of micrometre-sized bodies that are spherical, oblate or elongate in shape. For a long time, these minute structures were regarded as the remains of biofilms of keratinophilic bacteria, but recently they have been reinterpreted as melanosomes; that is, colour-bearing organelles. Resolving this fundamental difference in interpretation is crucial: if endogenous then the fossil microbodies would represent a significant advancement in the fields of palaeontology and evolutionary biology given, for example, the possibility to reconstruct integumentary colours and plumage colour patterns. It has previously been shown that certain trace elements occur in fossils as organometallic compounds, and hence may be used as biomarkers for melanin pigments. Here we expand this knowledge by demonstrating the presence of molecularly preserved melanin in intimate association with melanosome-like microbodies isolated from an argentinoid fish eye from the early Eocene of Denmark.

Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1819

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