[Rockhounds] Could proteins found in dinosaur fossils come from microbes?

[Paul]

Could proteins found in dinosaur fossils come from microbes?
A new study continues the debate over whether or not
scientists have discovered fragments of actual dino proteins
by Laura Howes, Chemical & Engineering News
https://cen.acs.org/analytical-chemistry/art-&-artifacts/proteins-found-dinosaur-fossils-come-from-microbes/97/i27

Evan T Saitta, Renxing Liang, Maggie CY Lau, Caleb M Brown,
Nicholas R Longrich, Thomas G Kaye, Ben J Novak, Steven L
Salzberg, and Mark A Norell. 2019. Cretaceous dinosaur bone
contains recent organic material and provides an environment
conducive to microbial communities. eLife
https://elifesciences.org/articles/46205

Raphael Eisenhofer and Alan Cooper. 2019.
Fossils: A new home for microbes. eLife
https://elifesciences.org/articles/48493

An opposing open access paper is:

Schweitzer, M.H., Schroeter, E.R., Cleland, T.P. and Zheng,
W., 2019. Paleoproteomics of Mesozoic dinosaurs and
other Mesozoic fossils. Proteomics, p.1800251.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pmic.201800251

Yours,

Paul H.