Survival of mineral-bound peptides into the Miocene.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36533893.
- Also identified by DOI 10.7554/eLife.82849 and PMC identifier 9803351.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Previously, we showed that authentic peptide sequences could be obtained from 3.8-Ma-old ostrich eggshell (OES) from the site of Laetoli, Tanzania (Demarchi et al., 2016). Here, we show that the same sequences survive in a >6.5 Ma OES recovered from a palaeosteppe setting in northwestern China. The eggshell is thicker than those observed in extant species and consistent with the Liushu <i>Struthio</i> sp. ootaxon. These findings push the preservation of ancient proteins back to the Miocene and highlight their potential for paleontology, paleoecology, and evolutionary biology.
Medical subject headings
- Fossils
- Paleontology