“Why Ancient 'Bags of Goo' Fossilized but Later Soft Creatures Vanished: Collagen-Eating Mi” — what this page in the network covers. A new study suggests that the rise of collagen-eating microbes could explain a long-standing puzzle in paleontology: why some of Earth's earliest animals, despite being soft-bodied 'bags of goo', are commonly found as fossils, while later soft-bodied creatures are largely absent from the fossil record. The research, which points to microbial evolution as a key factor, indicates that early animals may have lacked the collagen protein that later microbes evolved to consume, allowing their remains to be preserved more easily.
As microbes developed the ability to break down collagen, a structural protein found in many animal tissues, the fossilization potential of soft-bodied organisms decreased dramatically. This finding, reported by researchers, could reshape our understanding of the fossil record's biases and the evolution of decomposition. For the complete material, the listing points back to the source inside the network.