Rise of collagen-eating microbes may help explain gaps in the fossil record
Researchers may have uncovered the reason why some of Earth’s earliest animals were commonly preserved as fossils – even though they were essentially fragile ‘bags of goo’ – while later soft-bodied creatures have largely disappeared from the fossil record.
Summary
Researchers have identified collagen-eating microbes as a possible explanation for the disparity in fossil preservation between early animals and later soft-bodied creatures. While early animals, despite their fragile nature, were often preserved as fossils, the presence of these microbes may have contributed to the lack of fossilization in more recent soft-bodied species.
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