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Protein sequencing solves Darwinian mystery of 'strange' South American mammals. The findings are based on fossil protein sequences, which allow researchers to peek back in time up to 10 times farther than they can with DNA.

Scientists used proteomic analysis to screen 48 fossils of Toxodon platenis and Marauchenia patachonica, the very species whose remains Darwin discovered 180 years ago in Uruguay and Argentina. Professor Benedikt Kessler participated in this study.

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