Tag Archive for 'Steroid'

Grice et al. integrate organic geochemical analyses with high-resolution micro-mineral imaging of a three-dimensionally preserved Cretaceous pterosaur wing phalanx from Brazil to reveal steroid biomarkers and multi-stage mineralization pathways underlying its preservation. Image credit: Grice et al., doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2026.116199.

113-Million-Year-Old Pterosaur Fossil Reveals What Flying Reptiles Ate

Jun 19, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A 113-million-year-old pterosaur fossil from northeastern Brazil has yielded rare evidence of soft tissues, organic molecules and chemical traces of a...

Eukaryotic life appears to have flourished surprisingly late in the history of Earth. This view is based on the low diversity of diagnostic eukaryotic fossils in marine sediments of mid-Proterozoic age (around 1.6 billion to 800 million years ago) and an absence of steranes, the molecular fossils of eukaryotic membrane sterols. This scarcity of eukaryotic remains is difficult to reconcile with molecular clocks that suggest that LECA had already emerged between around 1.2 and more than 1.8 billion years ago. LECA, in turn, must have been preceded by stem-group eukaryotic forms by several hundred million years. Brocks et al. report the discovery of abundant protosteroids in sedimentary rocks of mid-Proterozoic age. Image credit: Arek Socha.

Molecular Remains of Ancient Complex Life Found in 1.6-Billion-Year-Old Rocks

Jun 8, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have detected abundant protosteroids — traces of ancient life forms — in 1.6-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks that had formed...

van der Meulen et al. show that both systemic and inhaled glucocorticoid use are associated with an apparently widespread reduction in white matter integrity, which may in part underly the neuropsychiatric side effects observed in patients using glucocorticoids. Image credit: Steve Buissinne.

Glucocorticoid Use Associated with Structural and Volume Changes in White and Gray Matter

Sep 1, 2022 by News Staff

New research from the Leiden University Medical Center shows that both systemic and inhaled glucocorticoids — a class of synthetic steroids —...

Transmission electron microscopic image of an isolate from the first U.S. case of 2019-nCoV. The spherical extracellular viral particles contain cross-sections through the viral genome, seen as black dots. Image credit: C.S. Goldsmith & A. Tamin / CDC.

Steroids Should Be Avoided in Treatment of 2019-nCoV Coronavirus, Scientists Say

Feb 10, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh Centre for Inflammation Research, the Queen’s Medical Research Institute Edinburgh, and Roslin...

The yellow pot sponge (Rhabdastrella globostellata), a modern species of demosponge that makes the same 26-mes steroids that Zumberge et al found in ancient rocks. Image credit: Ria Tan, www.wildsingapore.com / CC BY 2.0.

Scientists Find New Biomarker Evidence for Neoproterozoic Animals

Oct 17, 2018 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by University of California, Riverside’s Professor Gordon Love has found the oldest evidence yet of animal life, dating back...

Researchers from Australia and Germany have identified seventy individual steroids, including stenols, steradienols, stanols, stanones, sterenes, steradienes, diasterenes, diasteranes, mono- and triaromatic steroids, in this 380-million-year-old fossil. Image credit: Ines Melendez, Curtin University's WA Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre.

Cholesterol, Other Steroids Found in 380-Million-Year-Old Crab-Like Fossil

Oct 9, 2013 by News Staff

Scientists led by Ines Melendez from Curtin University have identified 70 intact steroidal compounds in a 380-million-year-old crustacean fossil from the...