{
  "id": 13199991,
  "title": "Did These Microbes Eat A Lot of the Fossil Record?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/09/did-these-microbes-eat-a-lot-of-the-fossil-record",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-09T20:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Nautilus",
    "slug": "nautilus",
    "url": "https://nautil.us/did-these-microbes-eat-a-lot-of-the-fossil-record-1285704/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The fossil record is not a perfect representation of life throughout history. Soft tissues, such as organs, are rarely preserved, leaving paleontologists to piece together extinct life from the hard parts like bones, shells, and exoskeletons. However, during the late Ediacaran period, which occurred between 579 and 539 million years ago, complex organisms were mostly soft-bodied. Interestingly, they left behind an abundance of fossils, sometimes entire alien-like ecosystems. This anomaly has puzzled scientists, but a new study published in Current Biology may have finally solved the mystery. The key lies in the evolution of enzymes that can break down polymers found in organisms like collagen, which provided structural support for these soft-bodied creatures. Before the evolution of collagen-eating microbes, collagen could have served as a sort of \"plastic\" preserving the soft tissues of Ediacaran life. The study found that collagenases, the enzymes responsible for breaking down collagen, actually predated animals. However, they first appeared in anaerobic microbes living in oxygen-free environments, while the Ediacaran organisms thrived in oxygen-rich oceans. Once aerobic ocean microbes learned to consume collagen, Ediacaran fossils began to disappear from the fossil record, likely because faster fossilization processes were needed to keep up with decay. This situation may have been similar for plants. Lignin, a tough polymer that makes up wood, evolved around 400-360 million years ago, while white rot fungi, which can break down lignin, didn't evolve until 290 million years ago. This 70-110 million-year gap might have left dead trees un-decayed, eventually leading to their transformation into coal through heat, pressure, and time. The study suggests that a similar process could one day happen with plastic polymers, as bacteria may eventually evolve enzymes to efficiently degrade plastics, which are increasingly abundant in the environment.",
  "summary": "Polymers are stubborn things The post Did These Microbes Eat A Lot of the Fossil Record? appeared first on Nautilus .",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}