Fossil Proteins: Unlocking Ancient Biochemistry & Evolution #shorts

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]If collagen survives in some fossils, then other proteins might, too.

[00:00:05]Structural proteins that built the animal's tissues, signaling proteins that coordinated its physiology.

[00:00:12]Nicky to me.

[00:00:14]Enzymes that catalyze the chemical reactions that kept it alive.

[00:00:19]In the most extraordinarily preserved specimens, under the perfect conditions, maybe even fragments of DNA.

[00:00:26]Though that's a bigger stretch, given that DNA is far less stable than protein.

[00:00:31]But the principle is clear. The fossil record isn't just a record of shapes.

[00:00:35]It's potentially a record of molecules.

[00:00:38]A record of the actual biochemistry of extinct life. That opens doors that paleontology hasn't had the keys to before.

[00:00:45]You could study the evolution of proteins themselves, not just the evolution of the animals that carried them.

[00:00:51]You can understand the physiology of extinct animals in ways that anatomy alone can never tell you.

[00:00:57]You could potentially read the metabolic signatures of extinct species. Their biochemical fingerprints.

[00:01:04]Written in the proteins preserved inside their bones.