See gallery below for what this is!
Just in time for the release Friday of the movie Jurassic World, scientists (real ones!) have announced discovering “soft tissue” inside dinosaur bones. The discovery is another step in creating a new field fantastically called “dinosaurian cellular biology.”
That phrase was coined by paleontologist Mary Schweitzer in her 2012 research paper exploring the soft tissue and perhaps red blood cells she first accidentally spotted in T-Rex bones 20 years ago. She writes:
These data are the first to support preservation of multiple proteins and to present multiple lines of evidence for material consistent with DNA in dinosaurs, supporting the hypothesis that these structures were part of the once living animals. We propose mechanisms for preservation of cells and component molecules, and discuss implications for dinosaurian cellular biology.
Her earlier findings were publish in 2005 under the title “Soft-Tissue Vessels and Cellular Preservation in Tyrannosaurus Rex.” That earlier claim was …
Soft tissues are preserved within hindlimb elements of Tyrannosaurus rex (Museum of the Rockies specimen 1125). Removal of the mineral phase reveals transparent, flexible, hollow blood vessels containing small round microstructures that can be expressed from the vessels into solution. Some regions of the demineralized bone matrix are highly fibrous, and the matrix possesses elasticity and resilience. Three populations of microstructures have cell-like morphology. Thus, some dinosaurian soft tissues may retain some of their original flexibility, elasticity, and resilience.
Latest findings in ‘common bones’
New research shows that while Schweitzer’s conclusions have been controversial, dino soft tissue appears to be more common than even her supporters anticipated.
The new discoveries were reported in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday under the title “Fibres and cellular structures preserved in 75-million–year-old dinosaur specimens.” The research was led by Sergio Bertazzo of Imperial College London.
Susannah Maidment, one of the paleontologists who worked on the paper, called them “crap” specimens. If they have preserved soft tissue inside them, it could be a sign that thousands of other fossils in museum collections do too.
The researchers state in their paper “the bones are not exceptionally preserved and show no external indication of soft tissue. In one sample, we observe structures consistent with endogenous collagen fibre.” Those are the types of fibers found in animal tissues such as tendons, ligaments and skin.
“Furthermore,” the researchers state, “we observe structures consistent with putative erythrocyte (red blood cell) remains that exhibit mass spectra similar to emu whole blood. Using advanced material characterization approaches, we find that these putative biological structures can be well preserved over geological timescales, and their preservation is more common than previously thought. The preservation of protein over geological timescales offers the opportunity to investigate relationships, physiology and behaviour of long extinct animals.”
In other words, these bits and pieces of long-extinct creatures will not only give us clues as to their basic characteristics (such as whether dinosaurs were warm- or cold-blooded and how many might have had feathers, if not all of them), but can also provide clues for what creatures in the current animal kingdom are direct decedents of dinosaurs.
So far, scientists have not been able to identify any DNA structures and apparently are very unlikely too since DNA is very fragile. “Scientists currently estimate that it has a half-life of just 521 years, and dinosaurs largely died off 65 million years ago,” as Vox puts it.
Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook.
If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.
from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1GfXWZm
See gallery below for what this is!
Just in time for the release Friday of the movie Jurassic World, scientists (real ones!) have announced discovering “soft tissue” inside dinosaur bones. The discovery is another step in creating a new field fantastically called “dinosaurian cellular biology.”
That phrase was coined by paleontologist Mary Schweitzer in her 2012 research paper exploring the soft tissue and perhaps red blood cells she first accidentally spotted in T-Rex bones 20 years ago. She writes:
These data are the first to support preservation of multiple proteins and to present multiple lines of evidence for material consistent with DNA in dinosaurs, supporting the hypothesis that these structures were part of the once living animals. We propose mechanisms for preservation of cells and component molecules, and discuss implications for dinosaurian cellular biology.
Her earlier findings were publish in 2005 under the title “Soft-Tissue Vessels and Cellular Preservation in Tyrannosaurus Rex.” That earlier claim was …
Soft tissues are preserved within hindlimb elements of Tyrannosaurus rex (Museum of the Rockies specimen 1125). Removal of the mineral phase reveals transparent, flexible, hollow blood vessels containing small round microstructures that can be expressed from the vessels into solution. Some regions of the demineralized bone matrix are highly fibrous, and the matrix possesses elasticity and resilience. Three populations of microstructures have cell-like morphology. Thus, some dinosaurian soft tissues may retain some of their original flexibility, elasticity, and resilience.
Latest findings in ‘common bones’
New research shows that while Schweitzer’s conclusions have been controversial, dino soft tissue appears to be more common than even her supporters anticipated.
The new discoveries were reported in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday under the title “Fibres and cellular structures preserved in 75-million–year-old dinosaur specimens.” The research was led by Sergio Bertazzo of Imperial College London.
Susannah Maidment, one of the paleontologists who worked on the paper, called them “crap” specimens. If they have preserved soft tissue inside them, it could be a sign that thousands of other fossils in museum collections do too.
The researchers state in their paper “the bones are not exceptionally preserved and show no external indication of soft tissue. In one sample, we observe structures consistent with endogenous collagen fibre.” Those are the types of fibers found in animal tissues such as tendons, ligaments and skin.
“Furthermore,” the researchers state, “we observe structures consistent with putative erythrocyte (red blood cell) remains that exhibit mass spectra similar to emu whole blood. Using advanced material characterization approaches, we find that these putative biological structures can be well preserved over geological timescales, and their preservation is more common than previously thought. The preservation of protein over geological timescales offers the opportunity to investigate relationships, physiology and behaviour of long extinct animals.”
In other words, these bits and pieces of long-extinct creatures will not only give us clues as to their basic characteristics (such as whether dinosaurs were warm- or cold-blooded and how many might have had feathers, if not all of them), but can also provide clues for what creatures in the current animal kingdom are direct decedents of dinosaurs.
So far, scientists have not been able to identify any DNA structures and apparently are very unlikely too since DNA is very fragile. “Scientists currently estimate that it has a half-life of just 521 years, and dinosaurs largely died off 65 million years ago,” as Vox puts it.
Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook.
If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.
from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1GfXWZm
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