today
8:30 a.m. Audubon Society Field Trip See Event Description
read >9 a.m. Arcata Farmers' Market Arcata Plaza
read >9:30 a.m. Discovery Walk: Unknown Waterfront See Event Description
read >9:30 a.m. Manila Dunes Restoration Manila Community Center
read >10 a.m. Manila Dunes Guided Walk Manila Community Center
read >10 a.m. Library Book Sale Humboldt County Library
read >10 a.m. Dia de los Muertos and Mexican Folk Art Sale Private Eureka home
read >10 a.m. Final Arcata Farmer's Market Arcata Farmers' Market (off the plaza)
read >11 a.m. Donlin Foreman Dance Workshop Dell'Arte
read >2 p.m. Humboldt Coastal Nature Center Draft Trails Plan Walk Stamps House
read >5 p.m. Bati Zado and Show Redwood Raks World Dance Studio
read >6 p.m. The Tumbleweeds Chapala Cafe
read >6 p.m. Ali Chaudhary (jazz duo) Libation
read >6:30 p.m. Not Evil, Just Wrong Humboldt Area Foundation
read >7 p.m. Guitar Stan (country) Old Town Coffee & Chocolates
read >8 p.m. Guitar Orchestra of Barcelona Arkley Center for the Performing Arts
read >8 p.m. Stones in His Pockets Arcata Playhouse
read >8 p.m. A Christmas Carol North Coast Repertory Theater
read >8 p.m. Donna Landry Swing Dance Moose Lodge
read >8 p.m. North Coast Wind Ensemble Fulkerson Recital Hall at HSU
read >8:30 p.m. The Last Minute Men (international) Cafe Mokka
read >9 p.m. Ian McFeron Band (folk rock) Six Rivers Brewery
read >9 p.m. The Michael Paul Band WAVE @ blue lake casino
read >9 p.m. The Generatorz (classic rock) Central Station Cocktail Lounge
read >9 p.m. Taxi Bear River Casino
read >9 p.m. VJ Itchie Fingaz Pearl Lounge
read >9 p.m. Jack Ruby Presents + Blue Street + Acufunkture (DIY rock) Jambalaya
read >9 p.m. 2nd Annual Scorpio Bash The Red Fox Tavern
read >10 p.m. Music by DJ Sidelines
read >10 p.m. DJ Icy Hot Aunty Mo's Lounge
read >10 p.m. Jemimah Puddleduck (rock) Humboldt Brews
read >10 p.m. White Manna + Midday Veil + The King Salmon Duo (rock) Jambalaya
read >11 p.m. Radio Moscow (psychadelic blues) + Mosquito Bandito (one-man surf/garage) The Alibi Lounge and Restaurant
read >previous columns
May 22, 2008
Pumping Heat
If you own a refrigerator, you own a heat pump, ...
read >May 15, 2008
Fossils Alive
Living fossils" are living species that resemble ancient fossils. In ...
read >May 8, 2008
Magnitude and Intensity
These terms are used in describing earthquakes. "Magnitude" is a ...
read >Photos
Fossil Collagen
By Don Garlick
Collagen is the protein that holds our bodies together. It constitutes our connective tissues. Lampreys, sharks and skates use it instead of bone. It is such a tough protein that some small fraction may have survived 68 million years in a T. rex skeleton excavated a few years ago. A team of six scientists recently analyzed the amino acid sequence in this T. rex collagen, as well as that in a half-million-year-old Mastodon (Chris Organ and others, Science, April 25, 2008). A computer was used to compare these fossil sequences with those of living species in order to determine their most likely evolutionary relationships.
I found the resulting phylogenetic tree so interesting that I decided to share it with you. My contribution was to translate obscure names, such as Raja, Cynops, Loxodonta, Monodelphis, Struthio, etc., into the more familiar Skate, Newt, Elephant, Opossum, Ostrich, etc. The (horizontal) lengths of the branches in the phylogenetic tree are proportional to the minimum number of mutations required to produce the observed diversity in amino acid sequences.
The T. rex sequence, however, is disputed in a rebuttal authored by 27 scientists who present evidence that collagen older than a million years must be too degraded to be useful (Mike Buckley, et al., Science, May 15, 2008). They accept the mastodon sequence as being valid. It was preserved for a shorter period under cooler conditions.
Human collagen is arbitrarily placed near the center of the diagram, for the benefit of our egos.



















No comments for this entry
post a comment