Comment on "Protein Sequences from Mastodon and Tyrannosaurus rex Revealed by Mass Spectrometry"

We used authentication tests developed for ancient DNA to evaluate claims by Asara et al. (Reports, 13 April 2007, p. 280) of collagen peptide sequences recovered from mastodon and Tyrannosaurus rex fossils. Although the mastodon samples pass these tests, absence of amino acid composition data, lack of evidence for peptide deamidation, and association of α1(I) collagen sequences with amphibians rather than birds suggest that T. rex does not.

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