Abstract
“ Relics” of ancient organisms can be found in the biochemical systems of their living descendants. The exceedingly conservative nature of the evolutionary process has preserved such relics in all living species. Many basic reaction pathways and even many features of complicated polymer structures are derived from extremely remote ancestors, far beyond the ordinary fossil record. This dynamic preservation of the biochemical components of living cells is often quite as rigorous as the preservation of sedimentary fossils. So infrequently have changes occurred which were acceptable to natural selection that some details of the metabolism of organisms of the Precambrian may be inferred with confidence from their living descendants. Unlike fossil evidence, all of the biochemical information pertains to direct ancestors. Special features of extinct collateral lines, or metabolic pathways that have been completely abandoned, would never be inferred from the living biochemical evidence.
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Dayhoff, M.O., Eck, R.V. (1969). Paleobiochemistry. In: Eglinton, G., Murphy, M.T.J. (eds) Organic Geochemistry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-87734-6_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-87734-6_8
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