Ancient Rhino Protein Discovery Opens Door to Dinosaur Research

In a groundbreaking study published on July 9, 2025, researchers have successfully recovered proteins from a 24 million-year-old rhinoceros tooth fossil discovered in the Canadian Arctic. The findings, which represent a significant advancement in the field of paleoproteomics, could pave the way for future investigations into dinosaur proteins, an area that has long intrigued scientists.

The fossilized tooth, found in the Haughton Formation, yielded proteins that are ten times older than the oldest known DNA. This discovery, made by a team led by Ryan Sinclair Paterson, a postdoctoral researcher at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen, exemplifies the potential of extracting and analyzing ancient proteins locked within durable enamel. “Enamel is so hard it protects these proteins over deep time,” Paterson stated. “It’s essentially like a vault. What we did was unlock this vault, at least for this specific fossil.”

Paleoproteomics, the study of ancient proteins, has emerged as a vital tool for paleontologists, providing insights into evolutionary history, dietary habits, and even the sex of ancient species. The research team sequenced seven proteins from the fossilized tooth, offering a clearer picture of the rhinoceros's lineage, indicating it diverged from living relatives approximately 41 to 25 million years ago.

Enrico Cappellini, a co-author and professor at the University of Copenhagen, emphasized the importance of this research, stating, “The next step is to demonstrate that it’s not just one sample, one lucky strike. But potentially there’s a huge area of research that could be further clarified, and if we really push it farther, we could even start to investigate dinosaurs.” This optimism stems from a related study also published on the same day, which analyzed mammal fossils from Kenya’s Turkana Basin and confirmed the survival of biomolecules in tropical climates, suggesting that proteins could endure even in warmer environments.

According to Timothy Cleland, a physical scientist at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Conservation Institute, the findings from the Kenyan fossils bolster the hypothesis that ancient proteins could potentially be extracted from much older specimens. “We were excitingly successful. We went back to about 18 million years. I think going back in time should be possible,” Cleland remarked.

While the research on the Canadian fossil has been broadly praised, some experts express caution. Maarten Dhaenens, a researcher at the University of Ghent, noted that the methodologies used in the Kenyan study are complex and less established, necessitating further validation. “The data is publicly available, so we should be able to verify their claims through manual validation, but this takes time,” Dhaenens stated.

Evan Saitta, a paleontologist at the Field Museum of Natural History, described the protein recovery in tropical fossils as “shocking,” challenging prior assumptions that cold temperatures were essential for protein preservation. “If that is a true result, it should be very easy to replicate,” he noted, advocating for further exploration in diverse fossil sites worldwide to confirm these findings.

Matthew Collins, the McDonald Professor in Palaeoproteomics at the University of Cambridge, echoed the excitement but urged caution, recalling his own disappointments in the past with ancient protein recoveries. He remarked, “It’s really exciting, but at the same time, I’ve been disappointed so much in my career by thinking that we had very old proteins and we didn’t.”

The question of whether similar techniques could be applied to dinosaur fossils remains open. Collins and Saitta previously attempted to extract proteins from a titanosaur eggshell fragment but found only degraded amino acids, lacking any identifiable sequences. The challenges are compounded by the fact that dinosaur fossils are generally older and have been subjected to greater geothermal heat and geological processes.

Nevertheless, Paterson and Cappellini remain hopeful about future discoveries in this field. They suggest that within a decade, it may be feasible to retrieve significant protein information from dinosaur remains, although they also acknowledge the need to explore other fascinating aspects of evolutionary history, such as the rise of mammals after the extinction of dinosaurs. “I really think some sites might preserve dinosaur proteins in deep time. Maybe we can give those a shot,” Paterson said.

This research not only enhances our understanding of ancient life but also sets the stage for future explorations into the molecular remnants of long-extinct species, demonstrating the vast potential of paleoproteomics in unraveling the mysteries of Earth’s biological history.