Direct chemical evidence for eumelanin pigment from the Jurassic period

Keely Glass; Shosuke Ito; Philip R. Wilby; Takayuki Sota; Atsushi Nakamura; C. Russell Bowers; Jakob Vinther; Suryendu Dutta; Roger Summons; Derek E.G. Briggs; Kazumasa Wakamatsu; John D. Simon

doi:10.1073/pnas.1118448109

Direct chemical evidence for eumelanin pigment from the Jurassic period

Keely Glass, Shosuke Ito^*, Philip R. Wilby, Takayuki Sota, Atsushi Nakamura, C. Russell Bowers, Jakob Vinther, Suryendu Dutta, Roger Summons, Derek E.G. Briggs, Kazumasa Wakamatsu, John D. Simon

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Advanced Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

147 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Melanin is a ubiquitous biological pigment found in bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. It has a diverse range of ecological and biochemical functions, including display, evasion, photoprotection, detoxification, and metal scavenging. To date, evidence of melanin in fossil organisms has relied entirely on indirect morphological and chemical analyses. Here, we apply direct chemical techniques to categorically demonstrate the preservation of eumelanin in two >160 Ma Jurassic cephalopod ink sacs and to confirm its chemical similarity to the ink of the modern cephalopod, Sepia officinalis. Identification and characterization of degradation-resistant melanin may provide insights into its diverse roles in ancient organisms.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	10218-10223
Number of pages	6
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	109
Issue number	26
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118448109
Publication status	Published - 2012 Jun 26

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Glass, K., Ito, S., Wilby, P. R., Sota, T., Nakamura, A., Bowers, C. R., Vinther, J., Dutta, S., Summons, R., Briggs, D. E. G., Wakamatsu, K., & Simon, J. D. (2012). Direct chemical evidence for eumelanin pigment from the Jurassic period. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(26), 10218-10223. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118448109

Glass, K, Ito, S, Wilby, PR, Sota, T, Nakamura, A, Bowers, CR, Vinther, J, Dutta, S, Summons, R, Briggs, DEG, Wakamatsu, K & Simon, JD 2012, 'Direct chemical evidence for eumelanin pigment from the Jurassic period', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 109, no. 26, pp. 10218-10223. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118448109

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AU - Ito, Shosuke

AU - Wilby, Philip R.

AU - Sota, Takayuki

AU - Nakamura, Atsushi

AU - Bowers, C. Russell

AU - Vinther, Jakob

AU - Dutta, Suryendu

AU - Summons, Roger

AU - Briggs, Derek E.G.

AU - Wakamatsu, Kazumasa

AU - Simon, John D.

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Direct chemical evidence for eumelanin pigment from the Jurassic period

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