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Record 24-Million-Year-Old Proteins Recovered From Fossil Tooth Enamel

This breakthrough will allow scientists to reconstruct evolutionary relationships far beyond the limits of ancient DNA.

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Overview

  • Two studies in Nature report protein fragments extracted from 18-million-year-old enamel fossils in Kenya’s Turkana Basin and 21–24-million-year-old enamel from a rhino tooth in Canada’s High Arctic.
  • Researchers used liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to detect and sequence multiple enamel proteins and more than 1,000 short amino acid chains.
  • The discoveries extend the known preservation window for animal proteins by about 14–15 million years, from the previous limit of roughly 4 million years to 24 million years.
  • Dental enamel’s dense mineral structure provides a protective microenvironment that shields proteins from degradation even under tropical heat or polar cold.
  • Scientists plan to apply these methods to map deep evolutionary lineages and physiological traits of extinct mammals and hominin relatives beyond DNA’s temporal reach.