Proteomics Study Has Solved the Mystery of Strange Fossils Found By Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin, a famous British naturalist found two unique fossils 180 years ago and called them the "strangest animals ever discovered". He found them to be so odd because one of them looks like a camel without humps and has a trunk resembling elephant. Another one appears a crossbreed of rhino, hippo and rodent.

The origin of these two mammals had been a mystery for years because of their destroyed ancient DNA. However, a recent study by the collaboration of London's Natural History Museum, American Museum of Natural History and the University of York has sorted out this paradox of weird South American ungulates. It has been published in the journal Nature. This research was carried out by using the specific proteins found in the bones called collagen. The protein sequence analysis of these fossils has revealed that these two extinct mammals named Macrauchenia and Toxodon belong to the group of horses, rhinos and tapirs. This finding has rejected the previous estimations which claimed that these ungulates were linked with the family of elephant, sloths, armadillos or aardvarks.

The molecular evolutionary biologist of London's Natural History Museum, Ian Barnes said about his most valuable research:

"We have resolved one of the last unresolved major problems in mammalian evolution: the origins of the South American native ungulates,"

The Professor Matthew Collins of University of York, whose lab got the prestige of conducting this important research said:

"People have been successful in retrieving collagen sequences from specimens dating up to 4 million years old, and this is just the start,"

He further added:

"On theoretical grounds, with material recovered from permafrost conditions, we might be able to reach back 10 million years."