Darwin, Then and Now

According to the February 27^th edition of Nature, more doubts now cloud the claim that dinosaur protein has been sequenced. Now a long-time critic has called for an independent review of the 2007 studies of ancient protein from a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex after fresh analysis revealed traces of ostrich haemoglobin in the original samples.

In the contentious papers, researchers identified seven fragments from a protein called collagen, found in connective tissue, and said their sequences most closely matched the chicken version of the protein. The samples came from the fossilized femur of a T. Rex. As well as further strengthening the evidence for the link between dinosaurs and birds, the findings would make the protein the oldest ever to be sequenced. The work, published in Science, garnered headlines worldwide and met with considerable scepticism at the time, for good reason—fraud.

The hunt for Darwin’s “inconceivably great” missing links continues.