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Science 1 May 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5927, pp. 626 - 631
DOI: 10.1126/science.1165069
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Reports

Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the Campanian Hadrosaur B. canadensis

Mary H. Schweitzer,1,2,* Wenxia Zheng,1 Chris L. Organ,3 Recep Avci,4 Zhiyong Suo,4 Lisa M. Freimark,5 Valerie S. Lebleu,6,7 Michael B. Duncan,6,7 Matthew G. Vander Heiden,8 John M. Neveu,9 William S. Lane,9 John S. Cottrell,10 John R. Horner,11 Lewis C. Cantley,5,12 Raghu Kalluri,6,7,13 John M. Asara5,14,*

Molecular preservation in non-avian dinosaurs is controversial. We present multiple lines of evidence that endogenous proteinaceous material is preserved in bone fragments and soft tissues from an 80-million-year-old Campanian hadrosaur, Brachylophosaurus canadensis [Museum of the Rockies (MOR) 2598]. Microstructural and immunological data are consistent with preservation of multiple bone matrix and vessel proteins, and phylogenetic analyses of Brachylophosaurus collagen sequenced by mass spectrometry robustly support the bird-dinosaur clade, consistent with an endogenous source for these collagen peptides. These data complement earlier results from Tyrannosaurus rex (MOR 1125) and confirm that molecular preservation in Cretaceous dinosaurs is not a unique event.

1 North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
2 North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC 27601, USA.
3 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
4 Imaging and Chemical Analysis Laboratory, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.
5 Division of Signal Transduction, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
6 Division of Matrix Biology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
7 Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
8 Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
9 Faculty of Arts and Sciences Center for Systems Biology, Harvard Univeristy, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
10 Matrix Science Ltd., 64 Baker Street, London, W1U 7GB, UK.
11 Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.
12 Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
13 Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
14 Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: schweitzer{at}ncsu.edu (M.H.S.); jasara{at}bidmc.harvard.edu (J.M.A.)

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