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In 2025 researchers read proteins from the tooth enamel of an extinct rhino that lived in the Canadian Arctic 21 to 24 million years ago, several times older than the previous record for ancient proteins.

Nature (2025)

ScienceNature

The story behind the card

The tooth came from Haughton Crater on Devon Island in Nunavut, where the cold ground slowed the breakdown of molecules. Enamel, the hardest tissue in the body, locks proteins inside its mineral crystals. The team read the protein fragments with mass spectrometry, which identifies molecules by weighing them very precisely, and used the sequences to place the animal, an early rhino called Epiaceratherium, on the rhino family tree. Before this, the oldest protein sequences came from fossils a few million years old, and the oldest DNA from about 2 million years ago. Proteins could let scientists trace how animals are related far beyond the reach of ancient DNA.

Türkçe oku
Kanada'nın Arktik bölgesinde 21 ila 24 milyon yıl önce yaşamış soyu tükenmiş bir gergedanın diş minesinden 2025'te protein okundu. Bu proteinler, eski proteinlerde önceki rekorun birkaç katı yaşlı.
Nature (2025)

Diş, Kanada'nın Nunavut bölgesindeki Devon Adası'nda, Haughton Krateri'nde bulundu; buranın soğuk toprağı moleküllerin bozulmasını yavaşlattı. Vücudun en sert dokusu olan diş minesi, proteinleri mineral kristallerinin arasında saklar. Ekip protein parçalarını, molekülleri çok hassas biçimde tartarak tanıyan kütle spektrometrisiyle okudu ve elde ettiği dizilerle bu erken gergedanı, Epiaceratherium'u, gergedanların soy ağacına yerleştirdi. Daha önce en eski protein dizileri birkaç milyon yıllık fosillerden, en eski DNA ise yaklaşık 2 milyon yıl öncesinden geliyordu. Proteinler, eski DNA'nın ulaşamadığı kadar uzak geçmişteki hayvanların akrabalığını izlemeyi mümkün kılabilir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Paleoproteomics
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