Preservation of biomolecules in the fossil record of plants: state-of-the-art in Molecular Paleobotany

Introduction and Objective. This article presents a review of literature published over the last 50 years in the area of Molecular Palaeobotany, with the aim of investigating the frequency of occurrence of biomaterials remaining in the fossil record of plants or their by-products in deep time. Metho...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Alves, Everton Fernando, Gomes, Weliton Augusto
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Repositorio:Revista Terrae didatica (Online)
Idioma:portugués
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br:article/8676195
Acceso en línea:https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/td/article/view/8676195
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Paleontologia molecular
Paleobioquímica
Paleoquimiotaxonomia
Biomoléculas fósseis
Biomarcadores
Paleontología molecular
Paleoquimiotaxonomía
Biomoléculas fósiles
Molecular Paleontology
Paleobiochemistry
Paleochemotaxonomy
Fossil biomolecules
Biomarkers
Descripción
Sumario:Introduction and Objective. This article presents a review of literature published over the last 50 years in the area of Molecular Palaeobotany, with the aim of investigating the frequency of occurrence of biomaterials remaining in the fossil record of plants or their by-products in deep time. Methodology and Results. The results identified 53 articles describing the recovery of a broad spectrum of biomolecules, grouped into three distinct classes: labile biomacromolecules, stable biomacromolecules, and biomarkers. In general, the presence of original biochemistry composition is considered to be geologically, geographically, and taxonomically distributed in Phanerozoic rocks, with the taxonomic groups Gymnospermae and Angiospermae presenting the largest number of reports. Conclusion. The research corpus also reveals that the predominant techniques in the studies are microscopic (SEM, TEM) and chemical analysis, including chromatographic and spectroscopic (GC-MS, Py-GC/MS, FTIR), suggesting that as technology advances, discoveries of biomolecules associated with plant fossils should be more frequent.