Latest news with #RyanSinclairPaterson
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Science
- Time of India
Real-life Jurassic Park? Ancient rhino proteins found — dino discoveries may be coming
Researchers have taken protein sequences from a 24-million-year-old rhino tooth found in the Canadian Arctic. This is the oldest detailed protein data ever found. This new development in paleoproteomics lets scientists look at ancient life in ways that DNA can't. Researchers are exploring the possibility of studying dinosaur proteins in the future. This gave them new information about evolution and confirmed that proteins can stay intact for a long time. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Select a Course Category Public Policy Cybersecurity CXO Degree Healthcare Operations Management healthcare MCA Data Science Data Science Design Thinking Product Management Data Analytics others PGDM Technology Leadership MBA Finance Management Project Management Others Artificial Intelligence Digital Marketing Skills you'll gain: Economics for Public Policy Making Quantitative Techniques Public & Project Finance Law, Health & Urban Development Policy Duration: 12 Months IIM Kozhikode Professional Certificate Programme in Public Policy Management Starts on Mar 3, 2024 Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 12 Months IIM Calcutta Executive Programme in Public Policy and Management Starts on undefined Get Details This milestone means that protein studies might one day include dinosaurs, which would change the way paleontologists and researchers study evolution over long periods of time. Proteins found in the 24 million-year-old tooth, discovered in the Canadian Arctic, are ten times older than the oldest known DNA, as per a report by CNN. How did they unlock proteins from a 24‑million‑year‑old tooth? Ryan Sinclair Paterson, a postdoctoral researcher at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, who oversaw the Canadian study, stated, "Enamel is so hard it protects these proteins over deep time (long time scales)." 'It's essentially like a vault. What we did was unlock this vault, at least for this specific fossil.' Live Events ALSO READ: Diddy is back! The disgraced rapper plans a career comeback with support from pal Kanye West Archaeological science has been transformed by the study of ancient DNA found in bones, fossils, and soil. This research has revealed previously undiscovered human species, ice age creatures, lost empires, and enigmatic clans. For fossils that are millions of years old and currently outside the chronological range of ancient DNA, ancient proteins hold out the promise of a similar revolution. The study highlights the vast potential of the field, known as paleoproteomics, and was published on July 9 in the scientific journal Nature. What did the protein analysis reveal about rhino evolution? Made up of amino acid sequences, proteins are stronger than DNA, which is a brittle molecule that breaks down rather quickly. The evolutionary history , diet, and occasionally even the sex of a fossil can be inferred from proteins, despite the fact that they offer less specific information. Demonstrating that it is not a single sample or lucky strike is the next step. Even the study of dinosaurs may be possible if we push it further. The scientists extracted sequences from seven proteins that were retained inside the fossilized rhino tooth, working with colleagues from the University of York and the Canadian Museum of Nature. In order to learn more about the rhino's evolutionary history, the scientists compared the sequences to those of extinct and extant cousins. About 41 million to 25 million years ago, it split off from the same family as extant rhinos, according to the findings. According to separate studies that were published in the journal Nature, biomolecules may be able to endure in hot, tropical climates for millions of years. Harvard University and the Museum Conservation Institute of the Smithsonian Institution discovered that even in hot tropical climates, scientists can recover prehistoric proteins that can provide clues about the relationships between extinct elephants and rhinos and their contemporary counterparts. Although the details in the Kenyan proteins were not as comprehensive as those in the Canadian fossil, the authors stated that the fact that they were identified in enamel tissues in one of the warmest places on Earth offers hope for the discovery of proteins in far earlier fossils. Can this method work on dinosaur fossils? Proteins found preserved in fossils in tropical latitudes have been described as "shocking" by researchers at the University of Ghent in Belgium. The methods applied to the Kenyan fossils, according to Maarten Dhaenens, a researcher at the University of Ghent, was intricate and less proven. The results, he said, were more difficult to interpret and needed a more complete evaluation. Evan Saitta, a paleontologist and research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, described the discovery of proteins retained in fossils from tropical latitudes as "shocking" and stated that the results need confirmation. He says that if this is true, it should be easy to replicate, and we should find enamel peptides (proteins) at every fossil site on Earth. "The Canadian fossil's research was more convincing," said Matthew Collins, McDonald Professor in Palaeoproteomics at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, as per a report by CNN. He pointed out that as dinosaur fossils are far older than the fossils in the two studies and primarily originate from a time when the global climate was hot and there were no ice caps, it is unlikely that protein information could be extracted from a dinosaur tooth. Generally speaking, dinosaur fossils have been exposed to significantly more geothermal heat and are buried much deeper. The thickness of the enamel of dinosaur teeth may have been insufficient to store proteins. Though there were other intriguing issues to look into first, such how mammals took over the earth after the dinosaurs died, Cappellini and Paterson hypothesized that it may be possible to extract valuable protein information from dinosaur remains within ten years. The study pushes the limits of evolutionary biology by getting proteins out of a rhino tooth that is millions of years older than the oldest DNA evidence. If this breakthrough works out, it could lead to a new era where the molecular secrets of the Mesozoic—and maybe even Jurassic Park, might not just be made up stories. This isn't just a cool thing that happened in the lab. It's a strong reminder that Earth's past isn't just bones and stones; it's molecules that are deeply coded and waiting for the right key to unlock their stories. FAQs What is so novel about ancient rhino proteins ? These are the oldest protein sequences ever decoded, 10 times older than DNA's preservation limit, providing a unique insight into deep evolutionary history. Could this indicate the presence of dinosaur proteins? Potentially, yes. Because enamel preserves proteins exceptionally well, researchers believe we could recover dinosaur proteins from suitable fossils in less than a decade. Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists recover proteins from a 24 million-year-old rhino fossil. Are dinosaurs next?
Scientists have recovered ancient proteins from a fossilized rhinoceros tooth, breaking new ground in the study of ancient life on Earth. The 24 million-year-old tooth, which was unearthed in the Canadian Arctic, contains proteins that are 10 times older than the most ancient known DNA. Using the sample, scientists have now analyzed the oldest detailed protein sequence on record. 'Enamel is so hard it protects these proteins over deep time (long time scales),' said Ryan Sinclair Paterson, a postdoctoral researcher at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark who led the Canadian research. 'It's essentially like a vault. What we did was unlock this vault, at least for this specific fossil.' The study of ancient DNA preserved in bones, fossils and dirt has revolutionized archaeological science, pulling back the curtain on lost empires, mysterious clans, ice age creatures and previously unknown human species. Ancient proteins promise a similar revolution for fossils that are many millions of years old and currently beyond the chronological reach of ancient DNA. The study, which published July 9 in the scientific journal Nature, showcases the enormous potential of the field, known as paleoproteomics. Proteins, which are made up of sequences of amino acids, are more robust than DNA, a fragile molecule that degrades relatively easily. Although proteins contain less detailed information, they can help to elucidate a specimen's evolutionary history, diet, even in some cases the sex of a fossil. 'The next step is to demonstrate that it's not just one sample, one lucky strike,' said coauthor Enrico Cappellini, a professor at the University of Copenhagen's Globe Institute who has pioneered methods to extricate proteins from fossils and was involved in the Canadian research. 'But potentially there's a huge area of research that could be further clarified and then, if we really push it farther … we could even start to investigate dinosaurs,' he added. Cappellini and Paterson, along with colleagues at the University of York and the Canadian Museum of Nature, recovered sequences from seven proteins preserved inside the fossilized rhino tooth. Sequencing ancient proteins involves determining the order of amino acids in a sample. By comparing the sequences with those of living and extinct relatives, the scientists were able to glean information about the evolution of the rhino. The analysis revealed that it diverged from the same family as living rhinos about 41 million to 25 million years ago. 'In the fossil record, there were some crazy forms (of rhinoceros species). There's the woolly rhinoceros, and maybe you've heard of the Siberian unicorn with the gigantic horn,' Paterson said. 'What we were able to do is compare our mystery rhino with other forms and find out where it falls in the family tree.' Separate research, also published July 9 in the journal Nature, which sampled fossils from Kenya's Turkana Basin, suggests that biomolecules can survive for millions of years, even in searing, tropical environments. The study, which analyzed 10 mammal fossils, including the relatives of today's elephants, hippos and rhinos, was published by researchers at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum Conservation Institute and Harvard University. They recovered proteins from five of the fossils dated 1.5 million to 18 million years ago, and found that even in tropical regions with high temperatures scientists can extract prehistoric proteins, which can reveal links between ancient elephants and rhinos and their modern-day relatives. While the information contained in the Kenyan proteins wasn't as detailed as that found in the Canadian fossil, the authors said that their presence within enamel tissues in one of the world's warmest regions holds promise that proteins in much older fossils could be discovered. 'We were excitingly successful. We went back to about 18 million years. I think going back in time should be possible,' said study author Timothy Cleland, a physical scientist at the Museum Conservation Institute. The research on the Canadian fossil was 'sound and super interesting,' said Maarten Dhaenens, a researcher at the University of Ghent in Belgium who specializes in proteomics. However, Dhaenens, who wasn't involved in either study, said the methodology used on the Kenyan fossils was complex and less tested. The researchers' findings, he argued, are harder to interpret and warranted a more thorough assessment. 'The data is publicly available, so we should be able to verify their claims through manual validation, but this takes time,' he said via email. Evan Saitta, paleontologist and research associate at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, said it was 'shocking' to find proteins preserved within fossils at tropical latitudes and added that the findings needed replication. It had been previously assumed that cold temperatures were necessary to slow down the breakdown of proteins. 'If that is a true result … it should be very easy to replicate,' he noted. 'We should be able to go around all different fossil sites all over the world and find enamel peptides (proteins).' Getting proteins from fossils this old would be a palaeontologist's dream come true, said Matthew Collins, the McDonald Professor in Palaeoproteomics at the UK's University of Cambridge, who agreed that the research on the Canadian fossil was more convincing. Collins, like Saitta, was not involved in the new research. 'This is amazing. It's really exciting, but at the same time I've been disappointed so much in my career by thinking that we had very old proteins and we didn't,' added Collins, who has tried to recover proteins from dinosaur fossils. Collins and Saitta were part of a team that detected amino acids in a titanosaur eggshell fragment, according to research published in 2024. The egg was laid by a plant-eating sauropod, a huge, long-necked dinosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous, shortly before dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago. However, the dinosaur eggshell lacked any identifiable protein sequences. Their results were akin to identifying five letters in a novel, revealing only a pattern of decay that showed there were once proteins in the eggshell, said Saitta. 'There's no sequence left, no information, just the little individual Lego building blocks of (amino acids),' Collins said. Getting protein information from a dinosaur tooth is a long shot, and Saitta noted that he had given up looking for proteins in dinosaur fossils in favor of exploring more interesting research questions. Not only are dinosaur fossils far older than the fossils in the two studies, he noted, but they mostly date back to a hothouse period in the global climate when there were no ice caps. What's more, on average, dinosaur fossils are buried far deeper and thus have experienced far greater geothermal heat. It's also not clear whether dinosaur teeth had thick enough enamel to preserve proteins, he added. Cappellini and Paterson said it might be possible to retrieve useful protein information from dinosaur fossils within 10 years, although there were other interesting questions to investigate first, such as how mammals came to dominate the planet after the dinosaurs' demise. 'I really think some sites might preserve dinosaur proteins in deep time. Maybe we can give those a shot,' Paterson said.
Saudi Gazette
11 hours ago
- Science
- Saudi Gazette
Scientists recover proteins from a 24 million-year-old rhino fossil
LONDON — Scientists have recovered ancient proteins from a fossilized rhinoceros tooth, breaking new ground in the study of ancient life on Earth. The 24-million-year-old tooth, which was unearthed in the Canadian Arctic, contains proteins that are 10 times older than the most ancient known DNA. Using the sample, scientists have now analyzed the oldest detailed protein sequence on record. 'Enamel is so hard it protects these proteins over deep time (long time scales),' said Ryan Sinclair Paterson, a postdoctoral researcher at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark who led the Canadian research. 'It's essentially like a vault. What we did was unlock this vault, at least for this specific fossil.' The study of ancient DNA preserved in bones, fossils and dirt has revolutionized archaeological science, pulling back the curtain on lost empires, mysterious clans, ice age creatures and previously unknown human species. Ancient proteins promise a similar revolution for fossils that are many millions of years old and currently beyond the chronological reach of ancient DNA. The study, which published July 9 in the scientific journal Nature, showcases the enormous potential of the field, known as paleoproteomics. Proteins, which are made up of sequences of amino acids, are more robust than DNA, a fragile molecule that degrades relatively easily. Although proteins contain less detailed information, they can help to elucidate a specimen's evolutionary history, diet, even in some cases the sex of a fossil. 'The next step is to demonstrate that it's not just one sample, one lucky strike,' said coauthor Enrico Cappellini, a professor at the University of Copenhagen's Globe Institute who has pioneered methods to extricate proteins from fossils and was involved in the Canadian research. 'But potentially there's a huge area of research that could be further clarified and then, if we really push it farther ... we could even start to investigate dinosaurs,' he added. Cappellini and Paterson, along with colleagues at the University of York and the Canadian Museum of Nature, recovered sequences from seven proteins preserved inside the fossilized rhino tooth. Sequencing ancient proteins involves determining the order of amino acids in a sample. By comparing the sequences with those of living and extinct relatives, the scientists were able to glean information about the evolution of the rhino. The analysis revealed that it diverged from the same family as living rhinos about 41 million to 25 million years ago. 'In the fossil record, there were some crazy forms (of rhinoceros species). There's the woolly rhinoceros, and maybe you've heard of the Siberian unicorn with the gigantic horn,' Paterson said. 'What we were able to do is compare our mystery rhino with other forms and find out where it falls in the family tree.' Separate research, also published July 9 in the journal Nature, which sampled fossils from Kenya's Turkana Basin, suggests that biomolecules can survive for millions of years, even in searing, tropical environments. The study, which analyzed 10 mammal fossils, including the relatives of today's elephants, hippos and rhinos, was published by researchers at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum Conservation Institute and Harvard University. They recovered proteins from five of the fossils dated 1.5 million to 18 million years ago, and found that even in tropical regions with high temperatures scientists can extract prehistoric proteins, which can reveal links between ancient elephants and rhinos and their modern-day relatives. While the information contained in the Kenyan proteins wasn't as detailed as that found in the Canadian fossil, the authors said that their presence within enamel tissues in one of the world's warmest regions holds promise that proteins in much older fossils could be discovered. 'We were excitingly successful. We went back to about 18 million years. I think going back in time should be possible,' said study author Timothy Cleland, a physical scientist at the Museum Conservation Institute. The research on the Canadian fossil was 'sound and super interesting,' said Maarten Dhaenens, a researcher at the University of Ghent in Belgium who specializes in proteomics. However, Dhaenens, who wasn't involved in either study, said the methodology used on the Kenyan fossils was complex and less tested. The researchers' findings, he argued, are harder to interpret and warranted a more thorough assessment. 'The data is publicly available, so we should be able to verify their claims through manual validation, but this takes time,' he said via email. Evan Saitta, paleontologist and research associate at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, said it was 'shocking' to find proteins preserved within fossils at tropical latitudes and added that the findings needed replication. It had been previously assumed that cold temperatures were necessary to slow down the breakdown of proteins. 'If that is a true result ... it should be very easy to replicate,' he noted. 'We should be able to go around all different fossil sites all over the world and find enamel peptides (proteins).' Getting proteins from fossils this old would be a palaeontologist's dream come true, said Matthew Collins, the McDonald Professor in Palaeoproteomics at the UK's University of Cambridge, who agreed that the research on the Canadian fossil was more convincing. Collins, like Saitta, was not involved in the new research. 'This is amazing. It's really exciting, but at the same time I've been disappointed so much in my career by thinking that we had very old proteins and we didn't,' added Collins, who has tried to recover proteins from dinosaur fossils. Collins and Saitta were part of a team that detected amino acids in a titanosaur eggshell fragment, according to research published in 2024. The egg was laid by a plant-eating sauropod, a huge, long-necked dinosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous, shortly before dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago. However, the dinosaur eggshell lacked any identifiable protein sequences. Their results were akin to identifying five letters in a novel, revealing only a pattern of decay that showed there were once proteins in the eggshell, said Saitta. 'There's no sequence left, no information, just the little individual Lego building blocks of (amino acids),' Collins said. Getting protein information from a dinosaur tooth is a long shot, and Saitta noted that he had given up looking for proteins in dinosaur fossils in favor of exploring more interesting research questions. Not only are dinosaur fossils far older than the fossils in the two studies, he noted, but they mostly date back to a hothouse period in the global climate when there were no ice caps. What's more, on average, dinosaur fossils are buried far deeper and thus have experienced far greater geothermal heat. It's also not clear whether dinosaur teeth had thick enough enamel to preserve proteins, he added. Cappellini and Paterson said it might be possible to retrieve useful protein information from dinosaur fossils within 10 years, although there were other interesting questions to investigate first, such as how mammals came to dominate the planet after the dinosaurs' demise. 'I really think some sites might preserve dinosaur proteins in deep time. Maybe we can give those a shot,' Paterson said. — CNN
CNN
a day ago
- Science
- CNN
Scientists recover proteins from a 24 million-year-old rhino fossil. Are dinosaurs next?
Scientists have recovered ancient proteins from a fossilized rhinoceros tooth, breaking new ground in the study of ancient life on Earth. The 24 million-year-old tooth, which was unearthed in the Canadian Arctic, contains proteins that are 10 times older than the most ancient known DNA. Using the sample, scientists have now analyzed the oldest detailed protein sequence on record. 'Enamel is so hard it protects these proteins over deep time (long time scales),' said Ryan Sinclair Paterson, a postdoctoral researcher at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark who led the Canadian research. 'It's essentially like a vault. What we did was unlock this vault, at least for this specific fossil.' The study of ancient DNA preserved in bones, fossils and dirt has revolutionized archaeological science, pulling back the curtain on lost empires, mysterious clans, ice age creatures and previously unknown human species. Ancient proteins promise a similar revolution for fossils that are many millions of years old and currently beyond the chronological reach of ancient DNA. The study, which published July 9 in the scientific journal Nature, showcases the enormous potential of the field, known as paleoproteomics. Proteins, which are made up of sequences of amino acids, are more robust than DNA, a fragile molecule that degrades relatively easily. Although proteins contain less detailed information, they can help to elucidate a specimen's evolutionary history, diet, even in some cases the sex of a fossil. 'The next step is to demonstrate that it's not just one sample, one lucky strike,' said coauthor Enrico Cappellini, a professor at the University of Copenhagen's Globe Institute who has pioneered methods to extricate proteins from fossils and was involved in the Canadian research. 'But potentially there's a huge area of research that could be further clarified and then, if we really push it farther … we could even start to investigate dinosaurs,' he added. Cappellini and Paterson, along with colleagues at the University of York and the Canadian Museum of Nature, recovered sequences from seven proteins preserved inside the fossilized rhino tooth. Sequencing ancient proteins involves determining the order of amino acids in a sample. By comparing the sequences with those of living and extinct relatives, the scientists were able to glean information about the evolution of the rhino. The analysis revealed that it diverged from the same family as living rhinos about 41 million to 25 million years ago. 'In the fossil record, there were some crazy forms (of rhinoceros species). There's the woolly rhinoceros, and maybe you've heard of the Siberian unicorn with the gigantic horn,' Paterson said. 'What we were able to do is compare our mystery rhino with other forms and find out where it falls in the family tree.' Separate research, also published July 9 in the journal Nature, which sampled fossils from Kenya's Turkana Basin, suggests that biomolecules can survive for millions of years, even in searing, tropical environments. The study, which analyzed 10 mammal fossils, including the relatives of today's elephants, hippos and rhinos, was published by researchers at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum Conservation Institute and Harvard University. They recovered proteins from five of the fossils dated 1.5 million to 18 million years ago, and found that even in tropical regions with high temperatures scientists can extract prehistoric proteins, which can reveal links between ancient elephants and rhinos and their modern-day relatives. While the information contained in the Kenyan proteins wasn't as detailed as that found in the Canadian fossil, the authors said that their presence within enamel tissues in one of the world's warmest regions holds promise that proteins in much older fossils could be discovered. 'We were excitingly successful. We went back to about 18 million years. I think going back in time should be possible,' said study author Timothy Cleland, a physical scientist at the Museum Conservation Institute. The research on the Canadian fossil was 'sound and super interesting,' said Maarten Dhaenens, a researcher at the University of Ghent in Belgium who specializes in proteomics. However, Dhaenens, who wasn't involved in either study, said the methodology used on the Kenyan fossils was complex and less tested. The researchers' findings, he argued, are harder to interpret and warranted a more thorough assessment. 'The data is publicly available, so we should be able to verify their claims through manual validation, but this takes time,' he said via email. Evan Saitta, paleontologist and research associate at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, said it was 'shocking' to find proteins preserved within fossils at tropical latitudes and added that the findings needed replication. It had been previously assumed that cold temperatures were necessary to slow down the breakdown of proteins. 'If that is a true result … it should be very easy to replicate,' he noted. 'We should be able to go around all different fossil sites all over the world and find enamel peptides (proteins).' Getting proteins from fossils this old would be a palaeontologist's dream come true, said Matthew Collins, the McDonald Professor in Palaeoproteomics at the UK's University of Cambridge, who agreed that the research on the Canadian fossil was more convincing. Collins, like Saitta, was not involved in the new research. 'This is amazing. It's really exciting, but at the same time I've been disappointed so much in my career by thinking that we had very old proteins and we didn't,' added Collins, who has tried to recover proteins from dinosaur fossils. Collins and Saitta were part of a team that detected amino acids in a titanosaur eggshell fragment, according to research published in 2024. The egg was laid by a plant-eating sauropod, a huge, long-necked dinosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous, shortly before dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago. However, the dinosaur eggshell lacked any identifiable protein sequences. Their results were akin to identifying five letters in a novel, revealing only a pattern of decay that showed there were once proteins in the eggshell, said Saitta. 'There's no sequence left, no information, just the little individual Lego building blocks of (amino acids),' Collins said. Discover your world Go beyond the headlines and explore the latest scientific achievements and fascinating discoveries. Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Getting protein information from a dinosaur tooth is a long shot, and Saitta noted that he had given up looking for proteins in dinosaur fossils in favor of exploring more interesting research questions. Not only are dinosaur fossils far older than the fossils in the two studies, he noted, but they mostly date back to a hothouse period in the global climate when there were no ice caps. What's more, on average, dinosaur fossils are buried far deeper and thus have experienced far greater geothermal heat. It's also not clear whether dinosaur teeth had thick enough enamel to preserve proteins, he added. Cappellini and Paterson said it might be possible to retrieve useful protein information from dinosaur fossils within 10 years, although there were other interesting questions to investigate first, such as how mammals came to dominate the planet after the dinosaurs' demise. 'I really think some sites might preserve dinosaur proteins in deep time. Maybe we can give those a shot,' Paterson said.
CNN
a day ago
- Science
- CNN
Scientists recover proteins from a 24 million-year-old rhino fossil. Are dinosaurs next?
Scientists have recovered ancient proteins from a fossilized rhinoceros tooth, breaking new ground in the study of ancient life on Earth. The 24 million-year-old tooth, which was unearthed in the Canadian Arctic, contains proteins that are 10 times older than the most ancient known DNA. Using the sample, scientists have now analyzed the oldest detailed protein sequence on record. 'Enamel is so hard it protects these proteins over deep time (long time scales),' said Ryan Sinclair Paterson, a postdoctoral researcher at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark who led the Canadian research. 'It's essentially like a vault. What we did was unlock this vault, at least for this specific fossil.' The study of ancient DNA preserved in bones, fossils and dirt has revolutionized archaeological science, pulling back the curtain on lost empires, mysterious clans, ice age creatures and previously unknown human species. Ancient proteins promise a similar revolution for fossils that are many millions of years old and currently beyond the chronological reach of ancient DNA. The study, which published July 9 in the scientific journal Nature, showcases the enormous potential of the field, known as paleoproteomics. Proteins, which are made up of sequences of amino acids, are more robust than DNA, a fragile molecule that degrades relatively easily. Although proteins contain less detailed information, they can help to elucidate a specimen's evolutionary history, diet, even in some cases the sex of a fossil. 'The next step is to demonstrate that it's not just one sample, one lucky strike,' said coauthor Enrico Cappellini, a professor at the University of Copenhagen's Globe Institute who has pioneered methods to extricate proteins from fossils and was involved in the Canadian research. 'But potentially there's a huge area of research that could be further clarified and then, if we really push it farther … we could even start to investigate dinosaurs,' he added. Cappellini and Paterson, along with colleagues at the University of York and the Canadian Museum of Nature, recovered sequences from seven proteins preserved inside the fossilized rhino tooth. Sequencing ancient proteins involves determining the order of amino acids in a sample. By comparing the sequences with those of living and extinct relatives, the scientists were able to glean information about the evolution of the rhino. The analysis revealed that it diverged from the same family as living rhinos about 41 million to 25 million years ago. 'In the fossil record, there were some crazy forms (of rhinoceros species). There's the woolly rhinoceros, and maybe you've heard of the Siberian unicorn with the gigantic horn,' Paterson said. 'What we were able to do is compare our mystery rhino with other forms and find out where it falls in the family tree.' Separate research, also published July 9 in the journal Nature, which sampled fossils from Kenya's Turkana Basin, suggests that biomolecules can survive for millions of years, even in searing, tropical environments. The study, which analyzed 10 mammal fossils, including the relatives of today's elephants, hippos and rhinos, was published by researchers at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum Conservation Institute and Harvard University. They recovered proteins from five of the fossils dated 1.5 million to 18 million years ago, and found that even in tropical regions with high temperatures scientists can extract prehistoric proteins, which can reveal links between ancient elephants and rhinos and their modern-day relatives. While the information contained in the Kenyan proteins wasn't as detailed as that found in the Canadian fossil, the authors said that their presence within enamel tissues in one of the world's warmest regions holds promise that proteins in much older fossils could be discovered. 'We were excitingly successful. We went back to about 18 million years. I think going back in time should be possible,' said study author Timothy Cleland, a physical scientist at the Museum Conservation Institute. The research on the Canadian fossil was 'sound and super interesting,' said Maarten Dhaenens, a researcher at the University of Ghent in Belgium who specializes in proteomics. However, Dhaenens, who wasn't involved in either study, said the methodology used on the Kenyan fossils was complex and less tested. The researchers' findings, he argued, are harder to interpret and warranted a more thorough assessment. 'The data is publicly available, so we should be able to verify their claims through manual validation, but this takes time,' he said via email. Evan Saitta, paleontologist and research associate at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, said it was 'shocking' to find proteins preserved within fossils at tropical latitudes and added that the findings needed replication. It had been previously assumed that cold temperatures were necessary to slow down the breakdown of proteins. 'If that is a true result … it should be very easy to replicate,' he noted. 'We should be able to go around all different fossil sites all over the world and find enamel peptides (proteins).' Getting proteins from fossils this old would be a palaeontologist's dream come true, said Matthew Collins, the McDonald Professor in Palaeoproteomics at the UK's University of Cambridge, who agreed that the research on the Canadian fossil was more convincing. Collins, like Saitta, was not involved in the new research. 'This is amazing. It's really exciting, but at the same time I've been disappointed so much in my career by thinking that we had very old proteins and we didn't,' added Collins, who has tried to recover proteins from dinosaur fossils. Collins and Saitta were part of a team that detected amino acids in a titanosaur eggshell fragment, according to research published in 2024. The egg was laid by a plant-eating sauropod, a huge, long-necked dinosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous, shortly before dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago. However, the dinosaur eggshell lacked any identifiable protein sequences. Their results were akin to identifying five letters in a novel, revealing only a pattern of decay that showed there were once proteins in the eggshell, said Saitta. 'There's no sequence left, no information, just the little individual Lego building blocks of (amino acids),' Collins said. Discover your world Go beyond the headlines and explore the latest scientific achievements and fascinating discoveries. Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Getting protein information from a dinosaur tooth is a long shot, and Saitta noted that he had given up looking for proteins in dinosaur fossils in favor of exploring more interesting research questions. Not only are dinosaur fossils far older than the fossils in the two studies, he noted, but they mostly date back to a hothouse period in the global climate when there were no ice caps. What's more, on average, dinosaur fossils are buried far deeper and thus have experienced far greater geothermal heat. It's also not clear whether dinosaur teeth had thick enough enamel to preserve proteins, he added. Cappellini and Paterson said it might be possible to retrieve useful protein information from dinosaur fossils within 10 years, although there were other interesting questions to investigate first, such as how mammals came to dominate the planet after the dinosaurs' demise. 'I really think some sites might preserve dinosaur proteins in deep time. Maybe we can give those a shot,' Paterson said.
