SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
A 75 million-year-old dinosaur fossil -- and a poorly preserved one, at that -- may have yielded traces of intriguing soft tissue. Scientists believe they've spotted blood cells and collagen, the protein that makes up connective tissue in animals. Their findings were published Tuesday in Nature Communications.
Years ago, researcher Mary Schweitzer found what she believed were preserved blood vessels in a T. rex bone, a finding that has since been supported by molecular analysis. But unlike the specimen Schweitzer worked with, the fossils used in the new study were poorly preserved, which suggests that soft-tissue preservation might not be as uncommon as we'd thought. However, further evidence is needed to confirm that the structures are what they appear to be.
It's exciting to think that if we can find more like this we can greatly expand our understanding of how life on Earth has evolved on the most fundamental level, such as seeing if certain traits were selected for given the environmental conditions represented in the same strata the fossils came from.
Original Submission
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2015, @09:13AM
[Citation needed]
(Score: 2) by engblom on Wednesday June 10 2015, @09:34AM
When the T.rex bone was found with blood vessels and soft tissue, it was a big problem as at that time there was not even one single known way for all the soft tissues and blood to survive that long time. The same Schweitzer, as mentioned in this article, did experiments with just red blood cells (not full blood) and noticed the surviving time is longer if there is a lot of iron (as with just pure red blood cells).
However, to say this is satisfying would be to lye. Nobody got just red blood cells, as there is plasma and white blood cells also in the blood and there is still to date no known way for animal blood and soft tissues to survive this long time.
This is still an enigma for science.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2015, @10:21AM
Its not unusual for there to be no known ways for something to happen before we see it happen the first time. In fact, I'd say thats the standard, that we only find out ways that stuff can happen after seeing it happen at least once.