Friday, October 9, 2026
Science

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.

Rise of collagen-eating microbes may help explain gaps in the fossil record
Image: Phys.org
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.

Originally published at Phys.org

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