Ancient proteins found in fossils up to 24-million years old
Scientists have now extracted and sequenced proteins from dental fossils of extinct rhinoceroses, elephants and hippopotamuses, including from a rhino tooth 21- to 24-million years old. Separate research teams found protein fragments in fossils from vastly different environments — the frigid High Arctic of Canada and the scorching Rift Valley in Kenya.
'Together, these complementary projects demonstrate that proteins — fundamental building blocks of living organisms that preserve information about evolutionary history — can be found in ancient fossils the world over,' said Harvard University evolutionary biologist Daniel Green, lead author of the Kenya fossils study published in the journal Nature.
This opens a new frontier for probing the deep evolutionary past, including the human lineage and perhaps even dinosaurs.
'Ancient proteins can tell us about an organism's evolutionary history by providing molecular data from specimens too old for DNA preservation. This allows researchers to clarify evolutionary relationships across the tree of life, even for species that went extinct millions of years ago,' said Ryan Sinclair Paterson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen's Globe Institute and lead author of the Canada fossil study in Nature.
DNA and proteins are fragile and degrade over time, but proteins are more resilient. The oldest-known DNA is from organisms that lived in Greenland 2-million years ago. Until now, the oldest-known proteins preserved well enough to offer insight on evolutionary relationships were about 4-million years old, from the Canadian Arctic.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mail & Guardian
14-07-2025
- Mail & Guardian
People back climate policy when weather events feel personal, new study finds
The effects of extreme weather events are disproportionately felt in countries in the Global South. Most people are more likely to support A few extreme weather events also seem to influence support for climate policies in different ways, according to the team of authors, which included Marina Joubert, an associate professor at the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology at Stellenbosch University. The Nature Climate Change , found that although extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense because of climate change, little is known about how experiencing these events — and attributing them to climate change — affects support for climate policies, particularly in the Global South. The effects of extreme weather events are disproportionately felt in countries in the Global South. 'Even though the The study shows that when people connect extreme weather such as heatwaves, floods and droughts to climate change, they're much more likely to support climate action, Joubert said. 'This matters for countries like South Africa where climate impacts are already being felt. One surprising finding from our study is that people in Africa, especially in South Africa, are less likely to say that climate change is behind extreme weather events,' she said. 'That's not because the weather is not changing, but because climate change awareness is still low.' To build support for climate solutions, there is an urgent need for better public communication that explains to people what is happening and why, Joubert said. The researchers assessed support for the following five climate policies: increasing taxes on carbon-intense foods, raising taxes on fossil fuels, expanding infrastructure for public transportation, increasing the use of sustainable energy, and protecting forested and land areas. They used combined large-scale natural and social science data from 68 countries to develop a measure of how many people were exposed to extreme weather events — and to explore whether this exposure, along with people's beliefs about whether climate change has affected extreme weather events over the last decades, predict their support for climate policies. They also comparatively assessed the link between the size of exposed populations, defined as the average annual proportion of a country's total population exposed to a specific weather-related hazard, to several extreme weather events and support for climate policies. They found that in line with previous research, increasing carbon taxes received the lowest support, with only 22% and 29% of people, respectively, indicating they very much supported increased taxes on carbon-intensive foods and fossil fuels. Protecting forested and land areas, by contrast, was a popular policy option, with 82% supporting it very much and only 3% not supporting it at all. The second-most supported policy was increasing the use of sustainable energy, with 75% supporting it very much, and only 5% not supporting it at all. The research showed that not all climate policies are equally popular, revealing that people around the world, including in Africa, are far more supportive of clean energy and forest protection than carbon taxes. 'That's an important message for governments. If you want public buy-in, you have to focus on solutions that people understand and support,' Joubert said. The study provides global evidence that subjective attribution of extreme weather events to climate change is associated with greater policy support for climate mitigation, the researchers said. 'Overall, different extreme weather events appear to have different relationships with climate policy support. This pattern highlights the importance of comparative analyses that consider different types of events,' the study said. 'In line with previous studies we also found that subjective attribution interacts with exposure to European winter storms, heatwaves, heavy precipitation and tropical cyclones to predict climate policy support.' Mere exposure to extreme weather events might therefore not suffice to increase policy support unless individuals link these events to climate change. While larger exposure to extreme events was not found to be related to policy support, except for wildfires, the researchers could not rule out that changes in the frequency of extreme weather events over time might be sufficient to shift support. 'Nevertheless, our data suggest that if individuals attribute extreme weather events to climate change, support for climate policies is higher regardless of whether the events are more frequent.' The reverse causal relationship is also possible: people who are supportive of climate policies are more likely to attribute extreme weather to climate change, the study said, noting that longitudinal panel studies are needed to investigate the nature and direction of this relationship. The research also found strong differences in support across countries and policies. Support for climate policies was particularly high in African and Asian countries, average in Australia, Costa Rica and the United Kingdom, and below the global average in several European countries, such as Czechia, Finland and Norway. 'Participants who identified as men, were younger, more religious, had higher education, higher income, left-leaning politics and who lived in urban areas were more likely to support climate policies,' the report said. For some events, such as heatwaves and tropical cyclones, the effects of exposure on climate policy support were stronger for individuals who attribute extreme weather events to climate change more strongly. 'One possible explanation is that these types of extreme weather events allow for management strategies that can directly reduce the hazard itself, such as man-made flood protections, irrigation systems, prescribed burn-offs and land-use policies. 'Therefore, people may be more likely to support policies pertaining to law enforcement or economic regulations instead of climate change mitigation.' The researchers however pointed out that exposure to most types of extreme events did not predict people's support for climate policies. The extent to which people attributed extreme weather events to climate change varied across regions of the world. People in South America most strongly agreed that the occurrence of extreme weather events has been affected by climate change over the last decades, especially in Brazil and Colombia. This might be explained by the fact that belief in human-caused climate change and self-reported personal experience of extreme weather events are high in Latin America. People in Northern Europe and Africa, on the other hand, were less likely to attribute extreme weather events to climate change. In Africa, this could be explained by low levels of climate change awareness and belief in human-caused climate change across the continent. The researchers called for more studies about effective climate change communication on types of extreme weather events that are not typically associated with climate.
TimesLIVE
10-07-2025
- TimesLIVE
Ancient proteins found in fossils up to 24-million years old
Scientists in recent years have made progress in finding ancient DNA in fossils, gaining insight into organisms that lived long ago. But the oldest DNA obtained so far dates back about 2-million years. Proteins, a cell's molecular machinery, also offer valuable information and have the virtue of surviving much longer, as new research shows. Scientists have now extracted and sequenced proteins from dental fossils of extinct rhinoceroses, elephants and hippopotamuses, including from a rhino tooth 21- to 24-million years old. Separate research teams found protein fragments in fossils from vastly different environments — the frigid High Arctic of Canada and the scorching Rift Valley in Kenya. 'Together, these complementary projects demonstrate that proteins — fundamental building blocks of living organisms that preserve information about evolutionary history — can be found in ancient fossils the world over,' said Harvard University evolutionary biologist Daniel Green, lead author of the Kenya fossils study published in the journal Nature. This opens a new frontier for probing the deep evolutionary past, including the human lineage and perhaps even dinosaurs. 'Ancient proteins can tell us about an organism's evolutionary history by providing molecular data from specimens too old for DNA preservation. This allows researchers to clarify evolutionary relationships across the tree of life, even for species that went extinct millions of years ago,' said Ryan Sinclair Paterson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen's Globe Institute and lead author of the Canada fossil study in Nature. DNA and proteins are fragile and degrade over time, but proteins are more resilient. The oldest-known DNA is from organisms that lived in Greenland 2-million years ago. Until now, the oldest-known proteins preserved well enough to offer insight on evolutionary relationships were about 4-million years old, from the Canadian Arctic.
IOL News
02-07-2025
- IOL News
Durban teen Tristan Maistry joins prestigious 2025 Summit STEM Fellowship
The fellowship connects ambitious young learners with top mentors from Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University to empower the next generation of leaders in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Maistry joined the programme from June 22. It runs until July 12 and provides an in-depth, sustained learning journey that includes workshops, mentorship sessions, and project work. Out of over 3 000 applicants from 90 countries, Maistry's passion, innovation, and dedication secured him a place among the world's future changemakers. Tristan Maistry, a Grade 10 pupil at Curro Embury, was selected to participate in the 2025 Summit STEM Fellowship Programme. A Durban teenager has been selected for a prestigious international fellowship that empowers the next generation of leaders in science, technology, engineering and maths. Maistry, 15, from Morningside, said he was honoured to have been selected through a stringent process. "Knowing that I am part of a small, passionate group of learners who share a love for STEM is very inspiring. It motivates me to make the most of this opportunity and to contribute meaningfully to the programme," he said. Maistry said from a young age he had an aptitude for maths. He said he applied to be part of the Summit STEM Fellowship because it offers an exciting opportunity to develop STEM skills beyond the classroom, engage in hands-on projects, and learn from industry leaders. "I was eager to challenge myself and grow through this experience. It also helps me to build a strong professional network. I have access to mentors and experts who I can reach out to for guidance and to discuss future STEM developments that I'm passionate about," he said. He said the fellowship covers a wide range of topics, including coding, engineering, data science, and innovation principles. Maistry added that it also focuses on leadership development, problem-solving, and preparing learners for future STEM careers through mentorship and exposure to real-world challenges. "It has been an incredible experience so far. I've particularly enjoyed the collaborative projects and the exposure to new technologies and problem-solving techniques. "One of the most interesting things I've learned is how to approach complex problems by breaking them down into manageable steps, which is a skill that will benefit me in any career," he said. Maistry said they have engaged in science trivias and on weekends have been able to chat to different mentors about anything that they are concerned about and want to know. "It is interesting to hear how people in different fields got to where they are and the challenges they faced. "It is about how you use the information taught and the skills learned to make a difference in your work and get involved in your community," said Maistry. He is considering studying actuarial science, engineering, mathematics or to become a chartered accountant, after matric "I am passionate about technology and innovation. This programme has strengthened my interest in these fields," he said.
