Fossil proteins have been increasingly reported, yet the preservational biases have not been addressed much. To address one of these biases, this study compared protein preservation in 24,000-years-old fossil elephant bones and ivories (i.e., dentine). The fossil bone samples were well-stained with special staining for protein, contained half of the proteins in the extant bones based on colorimetry, and exhibited thick smeared bands on SDS-PAGE. Unlike fossil bone samples, all analyses showed that protein is barely contained in fossil dentine samples. This preservational pattern is appeared to be related to the different microstructure of samples; dense dentine tubules make dentine vulnerable to protein loss.
