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4-Billion-Year-Old Fossil Protein Resurrected

Posted by samzenpus on from the back-in-the-day dept.

First time accepted submitter Zoë Mintz writes "Researchers have 'resurrected' a 4-billion-year-old Precambrian protein and found they resembled those that existed when life began, proving that protein structures have the ability to remain constant over extended periods of time."

1 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Sorta by dnadoc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They took present-day versions of the protein in living organisms, used a computer to interpolate a hypothetical common ancestor, then 'found' sequence homology - but people already knew the sequence was highly conserved, it's evident in modern organisms. There were no "fossils" involved. And conserved sequences make for poor molecular clocks, so who knows if it was 4 billion years ago.