In protein structure prediction, why does the use of co-evolutionary signals in multiple sequence alignments allow for the accurate prediction of 3D contact maps?

Proteins are folded chains of amino acids where specific residues must stay in close physical proximity to maintain the protein's structural integrity. When a protein evolves, mutations occur; however, if a mutation changes an amino acid in a way that destabilizes the structure, that protein will likely not function and will be eliminated by natural selection. To preserve the structure, if one amino acid at a contact point mutates, a second amino acid tha....