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Dinosporin
Dinosporin is a macromolecular, highly resistant organic compound which forms or partly forms, the enclosing wall of fossilizable organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts. Composition The walls of organic-walled dinocysts are composed of the resistant biopolymer called dinosporin. This organic compound has similarities to sporopollenin, but is unique to dinoflagellates. Resistant biopolymers are non-hydrolyzable and fossilizable macromolecular organic compounds present in many microalgal cell walls and fossil palynomorphs. Thus far, only the motile stage of ''Gymnodinium catenatum'' has been shown to produce the highly aliphatic biopolymer algaenan. Dinosporin has been shown to be a significantly different biopolymer from algaenan, which demonstrates that dinoflagellates are able to produce a completely different biomacromolecule for their resting cysts. Previous descriptions of dinosporin having similar properties to sporopollenin were based on both compounds’ resistance to hydrol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinoflagellate Cysts
Dinocysts or dinoflagellate cysts are typically 15 to 100 μm in diameter and produced by dinoflagellates as a dormant, zygotic stage of their lifecycle, which can accumulate in the sediments as microfossils. Organic-walled dinocysts are often resistant and made out of dinosporin. There are also calcareous dinoflagellate cysts and siliceous dinoflagellate cysts. History The first person to recognize fossil dinoflagellates was Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, who reported his discovery in a paper presented to the Berlin Academy of Sciences in July 1836. He had observed clearly tabulate dinoflagellates in thin flakes of Cretaceous flint and considered those dinoflagellates to have been silicified. Along with them, and of comparable size, were spheroidal to ovoidal bodies bearing an array of spines or tubes of variable character. Ehrenberg interpreted these as being originally siliceous and thought them to be desmids (freshwater conjugating algae), placing them within his own R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinocysts
Dinocysts or dinoflagellate cysts are typically 15 to 100 μm in diameter and produced by dinoflagellates as a dormant, zygotic stage of their lifecycle, which can accumulate in the sediments as microfossils. Organic-walled dinocysts are often resistant and made out of dinosporin. There are also calcareous dinoflagellate cysts and siliceous dinoflagellate cysts. History The first person to recognize fossil dinoflagellates was Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, who reported his discovery in a paper presented to the Berlin Academy of Sciences in July 1836. He had observed clearly tabulate dinoflagellates in thin flakes of Cretaceous flint and considered those dinoflagellates to have been silicified. Along with them, and of comparable size, were spheroidal to ovoidal bodies bearing an array of spines or tubes of variable character. Ehrenberg interpreted these as being originally siliceous and thought them to be desmids (freshwater conjugating algae), placing them within his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sporopollenin
270px, SEM image of pollen grains Sporopollenin is a biological polymer found as a major component of the tough outer (exine) walls of plant spores and pollen grains. It is chemically very stable (one of the most inert among biopolymers) and is usually well preserved in soils and sediments. The exine layer is often intricately sculptured in species-specific patterns, allowing material recovered from (for example) lake sediments to provide useful information to palynologists about plant and fungal populations in the past. Sporopollenin has found uses in the field of paleoclimatology as well. Sporopollenin is also found in the cell walls of several taxa of green alga, including '' Phycopeltis'' (an ulvophycean) and '' Chlorella''. Spores are dispersed by many different environmental factors, such as wind, water or animals. In suitable conditions, the sporopollenin-rich walls of pollen grains and spores can persist in the fossil record for hundreds of millions of years, since sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinoflagellates
The Dinoflagellates (), also called Dinophytes, are a monophyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes constituting the phylum Dinoflagellata and are usually considered protists. Dinoflagellates are mostly marine plankton, but they are also common in freshwater habitats. Their populations vary with sea surface temperature, salinity, and depth. Many dinoflagellates are photosynthetic, but a large fraction of these are in fact mixotrophic, combining photosynthesis with ingestion of prey ( phagotrophy and myzocytosis). In terms of number of species, dinoflagellates are one of the largest groups of marine eukaryotes, although substantially smaller than diatoms. Some species are endosymbionts of marine animals and play an important part in the biology of coral reefs. Other dinoflagellates are unpigmented predators on other protozoa, and a few forms are parasitic (for example, '' Oodinium'' and '' Pfiesteria''). Some dinoflagellates produce resting stages, called dinoflagellate cysts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algaenan
Algaenan is the resistant biopolymer Biopolymers are natural polymers produced by the cells of living organisms. Like other polymers, biopolymers consist of monomeric units that are covalently bonded in chains to form larger molecules. There are three main classes of biopolymers, ... in the cell walls of unrelated groups of green algae, and facilitates their preservation in the Fossil, fossil record. References Biomaterials {{med-tech-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Preservation Potential
Taphonomy is the study of how organisms decay and become fossilized or preserved in the paleontological record. The term ''taphonomy'' (from Greek , 'burial' and , 'law') was introduced to paleontology in 1940 by Soviet scientist Ivan Efremov to describe the study of the transition of remains, parts, or products of organisms from the biosphere to the lithosphere. The term taphomorph is used to describe fossil structures that represent poorly-preserved, deteriorated remains of a mixture of taxonomic groups, rather than of a single one. Description Taphonomic phenomena are grouped into two phases: biostratinomy, events that occur between death of the organism and the burial; and diagenesis, events that occur after the burial. Since Efremov's definition, taphonomy has expanded to include the fossilization of organic and inorganic materials through both cultural and environmental influences. Taphonomy is now most widely defined as the study of what happens to objects after they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is a technique used to obtain an infrared spectrum of absorption or emission of a solid, liquid, or gas. An FTIR spectrometer simultaneously collects high-resolution spectral data over a wide spectral range. This confers a significant advantage over a dispersive spectrometer, which measures intensity over a narrow range of wavelengths at a time. The term ''Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy'' originates from the fact that a Fourier transform (a mathematical process) is required to convert the raw data into the actual spectrum. Conceptual introduction The goal of absorption spectroscopy techniques (FTIR, ultraviolet-visible ("UV-vis") spectroscopy, etc.) is to measure how much light a sample absorbs at each wavelength. The most straightforward way to do this, the "dispersive spectroscopy" technique, is to shine a monochromatic light beam at a sample, measure how much of the light is absorbed, and repeat for each different ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinoflagellate Biology
The Dinoflagellates (), also called Dinophytes, are a monophyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes constituting the phylum Dinoflagellata and are usually considered protists. Dinoflagellates are mostly marine plankton, but they are also common in freshwater habitats. Their populations vary with sea surface temperature, salinity, and depth. Many dinoflagellates are photosynthetic, but a large fraction of these are in fact mixotrophic, combining photosynthesis with ingestion of prey (phagotrophy and myzocytosis). In terms of number of species, dinoflagellates are one of the largest groups of marine eukaryotes, although substantially smaller than diatoms. Some species are endosymbionts of marine animals and play an important part in the biology of coral reefs. Other dinoflagellates are unpigmented predators on other protozoa, and a few forms are parasitic (for example, ''Oodinium'' and ''Pfiesteria''). Some dinoflagellates produce resting stages, called dinoflagellate cysts or d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
