Board Thread:Fossil Fuels/@comment-3213993-20140706233628/@comment-3213993-20150416000317

Today I aligned the COL1A1 sequences of a softshell turtle, the chicken, the ostrich, the alligator, and the two dinosaurs that collagen has been sequenced from (Tyrannosaurus and Brachylophosaurus) with a bacterium. The Tyrannosaurus sequence was most similar to the archosaurs, only differing in two amino acids, but while the first half of the Brachylophosaurus sequence was consistent with an archosaurian identification, the second half was more similar to bacteria than archosaurs, suggesting that the second half was contaminated by another bacterial species.

A few days ago, I also compared the unique collagen sequence fragment of T. rex with nearly 30 other vertebrate organisms. Not surprisingly, it still turned up unique. So I think that the T. rex sequence is genuine, while the Brachylophosaurus is a mix of genuine and contaminated sequences.