A dubious claim was made by researchers - they had retrieved dinosaur collagen from an 80-million-year-old sample; that finding was just confirmed. Another publication has indicated that proteins may have also survived in a fossil that is around 195-million-years-old. While the second study has to be confirmed, this work shows that it is possible to recover workable samples from ancient fossils.
It's not time to open Jurassic Park just yet, but researchers have shown that protein fragments that could be identified were found in a 3.8-million-year-old sample. Additional work, carefully performed to rule out potential contamination from the modern environment, has indicated that even older samples may retain protein samples. The researchers aren't yet sure exactly how these samples have survived, but it is possible that the samples dehydrated in a way that preserved the protein and slowed decay.
It is possible that these reports could have a major impact on paleontology and could lead to more advancements and new information.
