Reuters Ancient proteins discovered in 24‑million‑year‑old fossils

Scientists Uncover Ancient Proteins in 24 Million Year Old Fossils, Opening a New Window Into Evolutionary History
In a remarkable scientific breakthrough, researchers have successfully identified and sequenced proteins preserved within fossils that are over 24 million years old a feat that redefines what we know about molecular preservation in the fossil record. This discovery doesn’t just extend the timeline of recoverable biological material by tens of millions of years, it signals a new era in our understanding of evolution, one that goes far beyond the capabilities of ancient DNA analysis.

For decades, scientists have relied primarily on bones, impressions, and DNA fragments to piece together the story of life on Earth. However, DNA degrades quickly, especially in warmer climates, limiting its usefulness to fossils typically no older than a few hundred thousand years, or two million in ideal conditions. Proteins, it turns out, may survive much longer under the right circumstances. By retrieving protein fragments from fossilized teeth and enamel, researchers have found a way to study extinct species at the molecular level offering insight into physiology, taxonomy, and evolutionary lineage that was previously unreachable.

The fossil samples analyzed in this study came from two dramatically different locations the Turkana Basin in Kenya, known for its hot and arid conditions, and the Haughton Crater in the Canadian Arctic, a region where freezing temperatures help preserve organic matter. In both places, the preserved dental enamel an incredibly tough tissue acted like a time capsule, locking in trace proteins during the animal’s life and protecting them through millions of years of geological activity.

What makes this discovery even more astonishing is the fact that these proteins were recovered not from soft tissue, which decomposes quickly, but from hardened enamel. Enamel is primarily mineral, yet it contains organic components embedded during tooth formation. These organic molecules, particularly proteins involved in building the enamel, were found to be well preserved despite the immense age of the fossils. By sequencing these proteins, scientists were able to reconstruct evolutionary relationships between extinct and living animals most notably, several long gone species of rhinos, elephants, and early mammals.

This innovation falls under the emerging field of paleoproteomics the study of ancient proteins. While the study of ancient DNA has captured headlines for decades, paleoproteomics offers an even deeper time lens. Proteins are more stable than DNA and can often survive where genetic material is lost. More importantly, proteins hold biological secrets of their own they reflect an animal’s metabolism, immune function, even sex. This means scientists can now make educated guesses not only about how an extinct animal looked, but how it lived, moved, and adapted to its environment.

The implications are wide reaching. One of the biggest questions in paleontology has always been how animals from different regions and eras relate to one another. With these protein samples, researchers can now build far more detailed family trees, tracking evolutionary divergence and convergence events that shaped the modern animal kingdom. The team behind this discovery was even able to chart lineages of extinct rhinos, comparing their protein sequences with those of modern relatives and revealing how different species branched off millions of years ago.

Furthermore, this opens the tantalizing possibility of studying even older life forms potentially even those from the Mesozoic Era, which includes the age of the dinosaurs. If proteins can survive for 24 million years in tropical and arctic conditions, it’s not inconceivable that with the right preservation and detection techniques, similar discoveries could be made in 66 million year old dinosaur fossils. This would be a seismic shift in paleontology, allowing scientists to test long standing theories about dinosaur physiology, growth, and extinction at the molecular level.

In the end, this discovery is more than a technical achievement; it's a powerful reminder that science is constantly rewriting its own boundaries. As we move beyond bones and into the molecular archives left behind by ancient life, we begin to see evolution not just as a series of fossil snapshots, but as a living, biochemical story. The survival of these proteins across unimaginable spans of time invites us to reexamine the limits of what we can know and inspires future generations of scientists to keep pushing the frontier of discovery.