ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2016
Molecular evidence of keratin and melanosomes in feathers of the Early Cretaceous bird Eoconfuciusornis.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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30 citing papers in PubMed, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- Insights into the early evolution of modern avian physiology from fossilized soft tissues from the Mesozoic.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Taphonomic variation in vascular remains from Mesozoic non-avian dinosaurs.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Age is just a number: Examining the preservation of cells and soft tissues in Bothriolepis and other Devonian fish.PloS one · 2025Article
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- Preservation of proteins in the geosphere.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Review
- Preservation of corneous β-proteins in Mesozoic feathers.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
- Correction statement for Recent advances in amniote palaeocolour reconstruction and a framework for future research (volume 95, issue 1, pp. 22-50).Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2023Article
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- Environmental Factors Affecting Feather Taphonomy.Biology · 2022Article
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- Spatiotemporal evolution of the Jehol Biota: Responses to the North China craton destruction in the Early Cretaceous.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
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- Confirmation of ovarian follicles in an enantiornithine (Aves) from the Jehol biota using soft tissue analyses.Communications biology · 2020Article
- The appearance and duration of the Jehol Biota: Constraint from SIMS U-Pb zircon dating for the Huajiying Formation in northern China.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Evidence of proteins, chromosomes and chemical markers of DNA in exceptionally preserved dinosaur cartilage.National science review · 2020Article
- Recent advances in amniote palaeocolour reconstruction and a framework for future research.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2020Article
- Taphonomic experiments resolve controls on the preservation of melanosomes and keratinous tissues in feathers.Palaeontology · 2020Article
- Protein aggregate formation permits millennium-old brain preservation.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2020Article
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10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Microbodies associated with feathers of both nonavian dinosaurs and early birds were first identified as bacteria but have been reinterpreted as melanosomes. Whereas melanosomes in modern feathers are always surrounded by and embedded in keratin, melanosomes embedded in keratin in fossils has not been demonstrated. Here we provide multiple independent molecular analyses of both microbodies and the associated matrix recovered from feathers of a new specimen of the basal bird Eoconfuciusornis from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota of China. Our work represents the oldest ultrastructural and immunological recognition of avian beta-keratin from an Early Cretaceous (∼130-Ma) bird. We apply immunogold to identify protein epitopes at high resolution, by localizing antibody-antigen complexes to specific fossil ultrastructures. Retention of original keratinous proteins in the matrix surrounding electron-opaque microbodies supports their assignment as melanosomes and adds to the criteria employable to distinguish melanosomes from microbial bodies. Our work sheds new light on molecular preservation within normally labile tissues preserved in fossils.
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