reverse engineering a look at ancient DNA

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DNA is a set of directions for producing the proteins necessary for building and maintaining an organism.  Proteomics -- study of the proteins found in an organism, or in an environment -- leads to knowledge about the DNA which was necessary for producing those proteins.

This article from Smithsonian about studying the proteins in a 1.7 million-year-old rhino's tooth enamel describes the process, and gives some hints about things we may be able to learn as a result of proteomics.

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