Ancient proteins found in fossils up to 24-million years old
Scientists have now extracted and sequenced proteins from dental fossils of extinct rhinoceroses, elephants and hippopotamuses, including from a rhino tooth 21- to 24-million years old. Separate research teams found protein fragments in fossils from vastly different environments — the frigid High Arctic of Canada and the scorching Rift Valley in Kenya.
'Together, these complementary projects demonstrate that proteins — fundamental building blocks of living organisms that preserve information about evolutionary history — can be found in ancient fossils the world over,' said Harvard University evolutionary biologist Daniel Green, lead author of the Kenya fossils study published in the journal Nature.
This opens a new frontier for probing the deep evolutionary past, including the human lineage and perhaps even dinosaurs.
'Ancient proteins can tell us about an organism's evolutionary history by providing molecular data from specimens too old for DNA preservation. This allows researchers to clarify evolutionary relationships across the tree of life, even for species that went extinct millions of years ago,' said Ryan Sinclair Paterson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen's Globe Institute and lead author of the Canada fossil study in Nature.
DNA and proteins are fragile and degrade over time, but proteins are more resilient. The oldest-known DNA is from organisms that lived in Greenland 2-million years ago. Until now, the oldest-known proteins preserved well enough to offer insight on evolutionary relationships were about 4-million years old, from the Canadian Arctic.
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TimesLIVE
3 days ago
- TimesLIVE
Ancient proteins found in fossils up to 24-million years old
Scientists in recent years have made progress in finding ancient DNA in fossils, gaining insight into organisms that lived long ago. But the oldest DNA obtained so far dates back about 2-million years. Proteins, a cell's molecular machinery, also offer valuable information and have the virtue of surviving much longer, as new research shows. Scientists have now extracted and sequenced proteins from dental fossils of extinct rhinoceroses, elephants and hippopotamuses, including from a rhino tooth 21- to 24-million years old. Separate research teams found protein fragments in fossils from vastly different environments — the frigid High Arctic of Canada and the scorching Rift Valley in Kenya. 'Together, these complementary projects demonstrate that proteins — fundamental building blocks of living organisms that preserve information about evolutionary history — can be found in ancient fossils the world over,' said Harvard University evolutionary biologist Daniel Green, lead author of the Kenya fossils study published in the journal Nature. This opens a new frontier for probing the deep evolutionary past, including the human lineage and perhaps even dinosaurs. 'Ancient proteins can tell us about an organism's evolutionary history by providing molecular data from specimens too old for DNA preservation. This allows researchers to clarify evolutionary relationships across the tree of life, even for species that went extinct millions of years ago,' said Ryan Sinclair Paterson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen's Globe Institute and lead author of the Canada fossil study in Nature. DNA and proteins are fragile and degrade over time, but proteins are more resilient. The oldest-known DNA is from organisms that lived in Greenland 2-million years ago. Until now, the oldest-known proteins preserved well enough to offer insight on evolutionary relationships were about 4-million years old, from the Canadian Arctic.
IOL News
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Durban teen Tristan Maistry joins prestigious 2025 Summit STEM Fellowship
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eNCA
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Greenland ice melted much faster than average in May heatwave
NUUK - Greenland's ice sheet melted 17 times faster than the past average during a May heatwave that also hit Iceland, the scientific network World Weather Attribution (WWA) said in a report. The Arctic region is on the frontline of global warming, heating up four times faster than the rest of the planet since 1979, according to a 2022 study in scientific journal Nature. Climate change intensified the seven days of heat in May in Iceland by about three degrees Celsius, the WWA said. And in Greenland, "the melting rate of the Greenland ice sheet by, from a preliminary analysis, a factor of 17... means the Greenland ice sheet contribution to sea level rise is higher than it would have otherwise been without this heat wave," one of the authors of the report, Friederike Otto, told reporters. "Without climate change this would have been impossible," said Otto, an associate professor in climate science at the Imperial College London. The data from the May 15-21, 2025 heatwave was compared to the average ice melt for the same week during the period 1980-2010. In Iceland, the temperature exceeded 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) on May 15, unprecedented for that time of year on the subarctic island. "Temperatures over Iceland as observed this May are record-breaking, more than 13 degrees Celsius hotter than the 1991-2020 average May daily maximum temperatures," the WWA said. In May, 94 percent of Iceland's weather stations registered record temperatures, according to the country's meteorological institute. In eastern Greenland, the hottest day during the heatwave was about 3.9C warmer compared to the preindustrial climate, the WWA said. "While a heatwave that is around 20 degrees Celsius might not sound like an extreme event from the experience of most people around the world, it is a really big deal for this part of the world," Otto said. "It affects the whole world massively," she said. More intense heatwaves have hit the two territories in recent decades, but they have occurred later in the summer -- in late July and early August in 2008, and in August 2004.
