This micro-workshop is the first of a series of cross-disciplinary inquiries designed to identify new approaches in the study of animals in history. By forging a conversation around the historical and scientific studies of animal fur, hair, keratin, and silk, the possibilities for reading animal materiality as historical sources are explored. State of the craft biomolecular methods used to characterize ancient to contemporary animal-derived proteinaceous objects are discussed relative to historical challenges that have informed the reliability of, and relatedly, trust in various scientific dating practices. The fruition of new proteomic methods especially prompts workshop participants to explore how new historical puzzles have arisen in animal evolutionary history, textile history, or in the history of scientific analyses of animal proteins.