REU: Isolation and Characterization of Proteins in Carbonate Skeletons

该项目将尝试分析有孔虫方解石中的蛋白质，以识别具有物种特异性的蛋白质。如果最初的结果被这项研究的结果所证实，这些蛋白质可能会成为个别物种的“指纹”。如果是这样的话，真正物种的进化可能会在化石记录中被追踪，而不是使用形态定义的物种，这些物种实际上可能并不是不同的物种。因此，在地质记录中可以追溯到单个物种的化石谱系。

The project will attempt to analyze the proteins in the calcite of foraminifera in order to identify proteins whic are species specific. If the initial results are confirmed by results of this research, the proteins may act as "fingerprints" of individual species. If so, the evolution of true species may be traced in the fossil record rather than using morphologi- cally defined species which actually may not be different species. Therefore the fossil lineage of individual species may be traced in the geologic record.