Survival of mineral-bound peptides into the Miocene

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • Fulltext

    Final published version, 3.67 MB, PDF document

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 Struthio sp. ootaxon. These findings push the preservation of ancient proteins back to the Miocene and highlight their potential for paleontology, paleoecology, and evolutionary biology.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere82849
JournaleLife
Volume11
Number of pages9
ISSN2050-084X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Demarchi et al.

    Research areas

  • biochemistry, chemical biology, eggshell, evolutionary biology, miocene, proteomics, Struthio

ID: 332934478