Twentieth-Century Paleoproteomics: Lessons from Venta Micena Fossils

Simple Summary Two independent research groups led by Olivares (Spain) and Lowenstein (USA) investigated the immunological reactions of proteins extracted from the controversial Orce skull (VM-0), a 1.3-million-year-old fossil found at the Venta Micena site in Orce, Granada (Spain) and initially believed to come from an unidentified hominin. Work by both groups with polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies showed that proteins from this fossil reacted most strongly to antibodies against modern human proteins. Other hominin and mammal fossils from Venta Micena were also studied. Abstract Proteomics methods can identify amino acid sequences in fossil proteins, thus making it possible to determine the ascription or proximity of a fossil to other species. Before mass spectrometry was used to study fossil proteins, earlier studies used antibodies to recognize their sequences. Lowenstein and colleagues, at the University of San Francisco, pioneered the identification of fossil proteins with immunological methods. His group, together with Olivares’s group at the University of Granada, studied the immunological reactions of proteins from the controversial Orce skull fragment (VM-0), a 1.3-million-year-old fossil found at the Venta Micena site in Orce (Granada province, southern Spain) and initially assigned to a hominin. However, discrepancies regarding the morphological features of the internal face of the fossil raised doubts about this ascription. In this article, we review the immunological analysis of the proteins extracted from VM-0 and other Venta Micena fossils assigned to hominins and to other mammals, and explain how these methods helped to determine the species specificity of these fossils and resolve paleontological controversies.