Amazing stuff!
Notice this study also mentions warmer temperatures than today millions of years before humans released CO2!
"About 2.4 million years ago, a large, now-extinct elephant meandered along the grassy shores of Lake Malawi in East Africa. Today, scientists know it was a juvenile that munched wormwood bark and mulberry leaves—and may have been fighting an infection when it died.
In a study ... scientists report that fossil bones and teeth from that elephant and other fossil animals dating back millions of years ago contain metabolites, tiny byproducts of internal metabolic processes. These compounds can reveal hidden insights into past environments, including details such as soil acidity and ancient pathogens. The work highlights the promise of such work to provide a window into the past. ...
The study “inaugurates paleometabolomics”—as the field is known—“as a robust, biomolecular tool for extracting … data from millions-of-years-old fossils,” ..."
"For the first time, scientists have analyzed metabolism-related molecules from the fossilized bones of animals that lived 1.3 to 3 million years ago, revealing insights about both the animals and their environments.
The metabolic clues about the animals’ health and diets enabled researchers to paint a picture of their living conditions, including the temperature, soil, rainfall, and vegetation. Their findings, published in Nature, reveal warmer and wetter conditions across these environments compared to today.
Studying metabolites—the molecules produced and used in digestion and other chemical processes in the body—can provide information about health and disease, as well as external factors like diet and environmental exposures. While metabolomic research is increasingly used in studying human diseases and drugs, few scientists have explored its use in understanding the prehistoric world. Instead, they largely focus on DNA in fossils, which is primarily used for establishing genetic relationships. ..."
From the abstract:
"The science of metabolic profiling exploits chemical compound byproducts of metabolism called metabolites that explain internal biological functions, physiological health and disease, and provide evidence of external influences specific to an organism’s habitat.
Here we assess palaeometabolomes from fossilized mammalian hard tissues as a molecular ecological strategy to provide evidence of an ancient organism’s relationship with its environment.
From eastern, central and southern African Plio-Pleistocene localities of palaeoanthropological significance, we study six fossils from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, one from the Chiwondo Beds, Malawi, and one from Makapansgat, South Africa.
We perform endogeneity assessments by analysing palaeometabolomes of palaeosols and the effects of owl digestion on rodent bones to enable prudent ecological inferences.
Here we assess palaeometabolomes from fossilized mammalian hard tissues as a molecular ecological strategy to provide evidence of an ancient organism’s relationship with its environment.
From eastern, central and southern African Plio-Pleistocene localities of palaeoanthropological significance, we study six fossils from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, one from the Chiwondo Beds, Malawi, and one from Makapansgat, South Africa.
We perform endogeneity assessments by analysing palaeometabolomes of palaeosols and the effects of owl digestion on rodent bones to enable prudent ecological inferences.
Diagenesis is indicated by metabolites of collagenase-producing bacteria, whereas the preservation of peptides including those of collagen are identified by proteomics.
Endogenous metabolites document biological functions and exogenous metabolites render environmental details including soil characteristics and woody cover, and enable annual minimum and maximum rainfall and temperature reconstructions at Olduvai Gorge, supporting the freshwater woodland and grasslands of Olduvai Gorge Bed, and the dry woodlands and marsh of Olduvai Gorge Upper Bed II6.
All sites denote wetter and/or warmer conditions than today.
We infer that metabolites preserved in hard tissues derive from an extravasated vasculature serum filtrate that becomes entombed within developing mineralized matrices, and most probably survive palaeontological timeframes in the nanoscopic ‘pool’ of structural-bound water that occurs in hard tissue niches."
Metabolic Analyses of Animal Fossils Helps Scientists Reconstruct Million-Year-Old Environments (original news release) "Thanks to molecules trapped in ancient animal bones, fossils tell stories about disease, diet, and climate"
A polarized light image of fossilized antelope bone showing intact collagen (scale: 1 mm across)
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