The scientific literature contains over 100 examples of original biomaterials in fossils.¹ These include a few decades’ worth of reports, using at least a few dozen independent techniques to target specific vertebrate biochemicals—such as the hardy protein collagen.

Descriptions of feathered dinosaurs continue to wing their way into scientific literature. While most researchers see each new example as another link in a Darwinian story of reptiles somehow evolving into birds, others fit these fossils into more classical categories. Two new discoveries give owners of these opposing views new opportunities to peck at each other’s ideas of bird beginnings.

A research team described a form of fossilization that it thinks can explain how original proteins have lasted for millions of years in Earth’s crust. It does match certain fossil features, but leaves two key questions unanswered. And that leaves soft tissue fossils still looking quite young.