Soft tissue preservation in amber II – a multi-methodical approach towards the understanding of amber taphonomy

琥珀中的软组织保存 II – 理解琥珀埋藏学的多方法方法

• 批准号: 396704064
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Jes Rust
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung Paläontologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Units
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2017-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/396704064?language=en
• 关键词: Soft; tissue; preservation; amber; II

Amber is well-known for its exceptional preservation of embedded organisms and represents an important insight into the fossil record of terrestrial ecosystems. The unique fossilization of amber yields the preservation of tissues, and structures which usually have only minimal chances to become fossilized, including nervous and sensory tissues. For inclusions in amber with preserved tissues, the ultrastructural details of those tissues can be used as a valuable tool for understanding the process of fossilization in amber. In the first funding period, we could get insight into the biomolecular preservation of bone tissue from Class I amber, but we could also show for the first time, that Class II amber preserves ultrastructures as well. Class II amber is found in vast amounts only in two deposits from China (Miocene) and India (Eocene). Our research could also evidence, that original amino acids are preserved in fossils of these two occurrences. Within the second funding period, we want to deepen some aspects of amber taphonomy, comprising the consistency of structural and biomolecular preservation, but also want to examine microbiological factors. A large-scale synchrotron examination of amber fossils will help to identify preservation patterns and enables a comparison of the consistency of internal tissue preservation between amber deposits of different ages and botanical origin. Within the biomolecular part of this project, the degradation of original proteins is analyzed with the help of various mass spectrometric methods. The new microbiological component comprises decay experiments on house flies in artificial resin and tests on the survivability of bacteria that have been reported to be extracted from amber. Altogether, our studies will provide new information on amber taphonomy within a multidisciplinary framework.

琥珀以其对嵌入式生物的特殊保存而闻名，代表了对陆地生态系统化石记录的重要见解。琥珀独特的化石保存了组织和结构，这些组织和结构通常只有很小的机会变成化石，包括神经和感觉组织。对于保存有组织的琥珀内含物，其超微结构细节可以作为了解琥珀中化石化过程的重要工具。在第一个资助期，我们可以深入了解I类琥珀骨组织的生物分子保存，但我们也可以首次证明，II类琥珀也可以保存超微结构。II类琥珀仅在中国（中新世）和印度（始新世）的两个矿床中大量发现。我们的研究也可以证明，原始氨基酸保存在这两个事件的化石中。在第二个资助期内，我们希望深化琥珀埋藏学的一些方面，包括结构和生物分子保存的一致性，但也希望研究微生物因素。对琥珀化石进行大规模同步加速器检查将有助于确定保存模式，并能够比较不同年龄和植物来源的琥珀沉积物内部组织保存的一致性。在这个项目的生物分子部分，原始蛋白质的降解是借助各种质谱方法进行分析的。新的微生物成分包括在人造树脂中对家蝇进行腐烂实验，以及对据报道从琥珀中提取的细菌的生存能力进行测试。总之，我们的研究将在多学科框架内提供琥珀埋藏学的新信息。