Through experiments involving human and mammalian tissue and serum samples, researchers report that degradation of N-glycolylneuraminic acid, a form of sialic acid that humans lost the ability to synthesize approximately 2-3 million years ago during evolution, led to the selective incorporation of N-glycolyl groups into chondroitin sulfate (CS), a component of bones; N-glycolyl-CS was detected in 4 million-year-old bovid bone fossils from Kenya, and the authors suggest that ancient glycans might provide insights into the evolutionary history of the Homo genus in Africa.
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Article #17-06306: "N-glycolyl groups of nonhuman chondroitin sulfates survive in ancient fossils," by Anne Bergfeld et al.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences