Jasmina WiemannJohns Hopkins University | JHU · Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Jasmina Wiemann
PhD
I investigate methodological, mechanistic and applied aspects of molecular biosignatures in modern and fossil samples.
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46
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Introduction
I am an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University. My research focuses on the mechanisms involved in biomolecule fossilization to develop new proxies that provide information on the relationships, physiology, and ecology of extinct organisms. I apply these integrative biosignatures to key evolutionary questions, aiming to understand how life evolved and reacted to past environmental challenges. To do so, I rely on high-end chemical, bioanalytical and mineralogical methods.
Publications
Publications (46)
Birds are the only living amniotes with coloured eggs1-4, which have long been considered to be an avian innovation1,3. A recent study has demonstrated the presence of both red-brown protoporphyrin IX and blue-green biliverdin5-the pigments responsible for all the variation in avian egg colour-in fossilized eggshell of a nonavian dinosaur6. This ra...
Vertebrate hard tissues consist of mineral crystallites within a proteinaceous scaffold that normally degrades post-mortem. Here we show, however, that decalcification of Mesozoic hard tissues preserved in oxidative settings releases brownish stained extracellular matrix, cells, blood vessels, and nerve projections. Raman Microspectroscopy shows th...
Proteins, lipids, and sugars establish animal form and function. However, the preservation of biological signals in fossil organic matter is poorly understood. Here, we used high-resolution in situ Raman microspectroscopy to analyze the molecular compositions of 113 Phanerozoic metazoan fossils and sediments. Proteins, lipids, and sugars converge i...
Raman spectroscopy is a popular tool for characterizing complex biological materials and their geological remains. Ordination methods, such as principal component analysis (PCA), use spectral variance to create a compositional space, the ChemoSpace, grouping samples based on spectroscopic manifestations reflecting different biological properties or...
Raman spectroscopy is a popular tool for characterizing complex biological materials and their geological remains ¹⁻¹⁰ . Ordination methods, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), rely on spectral variance to create a compositional space ¹ , the ChemoSpace, grouping samples based on spectroscopic manifestations that reflect different biologica...
The reconstruction of ancient trophic networks is pivotal to our understanding of ecosystem function and change through time. However, inferring dietary relationships in enigmatic ecosystems dominated by organisms without modern analogues, such as the Carboniferous Mazon Creek fauna, has previously been considered challenging: preserved coprolites...
Birds and mammals independently evolved the highest metabolic rates among living animals¹. Their metabolism generates heat that enables active thermoregulation¹, shaping the ecological niches they can occupy and their adaptability to environmental change². The metabolic performance of birds, which exceeds that of mammals, is thought to have evolved...
A recent article argued that signals from conventional Raman spectroscopy of organic materials are overwhelmed by edge filter and fluorescence artefacts. The article targeted a subset of Raman spectroscopic investigations of fossil and modern organisms and has implications for the utility of conventional Raman spectroscopy in comparative tissue ana...
Raman spectroscopy has facilitated rapid progress in the understanding of patterns and processes associated with biomolecule fossilization and revealed the preservation of biological and geological signatures in fossil organic matter. Nonetheless six large-scale statistical studies of Raman spectra of carbonaceous fossils, selected from a number of...
Calcified eggshells protect developing embryos against environmental stress and contribute to reproductive success¹. As modern crocodilians and birds lay hard-shelled eggs, this eggshell type has been inferred for non-avian dinosaurs. Known dinosaur eggshells are characterized by an innermost membrane, an overlying protein matrix containing calcite...
In recent decades, intensive research on non-avian dinosaurs has strongly suggested that these animals were restricted to terrestrial environments1. Historical proposals that some groups, such as sauropods and hadrosaurs, lived in aquatic environments2,3 were abandoned decades ago4–6. It has recently been argued that at least some of the spinosauri...
This is a definition and discussion of the clade Pan-Biota.
The chemical composition of fossil soft tissues is a potentially powerful and yet underutilized tool for elucidating the affinity of problematic fossil organisms. In some cases, it has proven difficult to assign a problematic fossil even to the invertebrates or vertebrates (more generally chordates) based on often incompletely preserved morphology...
Carbonaceous fossils are known for all major groups of life and provide pivotal insights into the evolution of organismal form and function. Even though globally distributed throughout the Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic, carbonaceous soft part preservation is considered exceptional based on the assumption that biomolecular building blocks have a lo...
The most commonly preserved soft tissues associated with ornithischian dinosaurs are skin remains. The apparent resistance of hadrosaur skin to decay, and its abundance in the fossil record relative to that of other tetrapods, has been attributed to factors such as thickness and composition. Here we report additional intrinsic factors within hadros...
Oviraptorosaurs, a group of non-avian theropod dinosaurs from the Cretaceous of Asia and North America, left behind the most abundant and informative fossil evidence of dinosaur reproductive biology. Previous studies had suggested that oviraptorosaur reproductive biology represents an intermediate stage and exhibited unique modern avian traits. For...
The cuticle layer consisting mainly of lipids and hydroxyapatite (HAp) atop the mineralized avian eggshell is a protective structure that prevents the egg from dehydration and microbial invasions. Previous ornithological studies have revealed that the cuticle layer is also involved in modulating the reflectance of eggshells in addition to pigments...
Dataset from elemental analyses of EPMA
Raw data from elemental analyses of Macroolithus yaotunensis eggshells from Jiangxi, Henan, and Guangdong Provinces of China, and Triprismatoolithus eggshell from Montana, USA.
Dataset from Raman analysis
Raw data from Raman analyses of Macroolithus yaotunensis eggshells from Jiangxi, Henan, and Guangdong Provinces of China, Triprismatoolithus eggshell from Montana, USA, and the associated sediments to each eggshell samples. Two crocodilian eggshells from Crocodylia porosus and Tomistoma schlegelii are also included in th...
Supplemental Information
Detailed descriptions of the applied methodology and further material information.
Protoporphyrin (PP) and biliverdin (BV) give rise to the enormous diversity in avian egg coloration. Egg color serves several ecological purposes, including post-mating signaling and camouflage. Egg camouflage represents a major character of open-nesting birds which accomplish protection of their unhatched offspring against visually oriented predat...
LC mass spectra biliverdin extracted ion chromatograms
Raw data extracted ion chromatogram for biliverdin (583 g/mol).
LC mass spectra biliverdin extracted ion chromatograms
Raw data of the liquid chromatography mass spectrometry extracted ion chromatograms for biliverdin in a second sample run/repetition.
Supplemental information
Detailed descriptions of the applied methodology and further material information.
Commercial standard liquid chromatography mass spectra extracted ion chromatogram for biliverdin
Extracted ion chromatograms for biliverdin (583 g/mol) of the commercial biliverdin standard.
LC mass spectra extracted ion chromatograms for protoporphyrin
Sample liquid chromatography mass spectrometry extracted ion chromatograms for protoporphyrin (563 g/mol).
Jiangxi sediment sample liquid chromatography mass spectra extracted ion chromatogram for protoporphyrin
LC mass spectrometry extracted ion chromatograms for protoporphyrin (563 g/mol) for the Jiangxi sediment sample.
Many recent studies using next generation technologies to unravel exceptional molecular preservation have changed our view on the limits of biomolecular stability during fossilization. Nevertheless, common hard tissues have not attracted much attention. Thus, the color change of vertebrate hard tissues from in vivo white to blackish-brown in many f...
Although several recent studies changed our view on the limits of biomolecular stability during fossilisation, studies on organic compounds in fossil eggshell material remain the exception. Here we present the first holistic approach on endogenous eggshell degradatomics in a behavioural and evolutionary context. Therefore, we investigated all poten...
Since dinosaur nesting behavior is a popular but controversial research topic, reliable indicators for behavioral reconstructions are required. In extant birds, eggshell coloration based on the metabolites protoporphyrin IX (PP, reddish pigment) and biliverdin (BV, blue-greenish pigment) reflects the nesting environment and brooding behavior. The p...
Dinosaur nesting behavior is a popular but controversial research topic. In extant birds, eggshell coloration based on protoporphyrin IX (reddish pigment) and biliverdin (bluish-greenish pigment) reflects the nesting environment and brooding behavior. Hitherto, the biochemical and physiological pathways for producing colored eggshell were generally...
Open-nesting birds use biological pigments in eggshell to camouflage their unhatched offspring, varying the colour to account for the nesting environment and location. The tetrapyrrolic pigments protoporphyrin (PP) and biliverdin (BV), which both participate in the haem metabolism, are responsible for the reddish brown of chicken eggs and the brill...
Open-nesting birds use biological pigments in eggshell to camouflage their unhatched offspring, varying the colour to account for the nesting environment and location. The tetrapyrrolic pigments protoporphyrin (PP) and biliverdin (BV), which both participate in the haem metabolism, are responsible for the reddish brown of chicken eggs and the brill...