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Scientists just found soft tissue inside a dinosaur fossil. Here's why that's exciting.
Vox.com ^ | June 9, 2015 | Joseph Stromberg

Posted on 06/09/2015 12:22:24 PM PDT by ETL

Dinosaur fossils, it was long thought, are simple objects. The fossilization process leaves the overall shape of a dinosaur's bones intact, but all the microscopic structures inside them — the blood cells, connective fibers, and other sorts of soft tissue — inevitably decay over time.

dino collagen
The photo above, from a new study published today in Nature Communications and led by Sergio Bertazzo of Imperial College London, shows an extremely zoomed-in view of a 75-million-year-old theropod claw, taken from the London Natural History Museum's collection. When researchers scraped tiny pieces off the fossil and looked at them under an electron microscope, they found tiny structures that look a lot like collagen fibers present in our own ligaments, tendons, and bones.

In other dinosaur fossils, the researchers found features that resemble red blood cells. Tests showed that they have a similar chemical composition to the blood of an emu (a bird thought to be a relatively close relative to dinosaurs).


The idea that dinosaur fossils might harbor soft tissue first surfaced about a decade ago, when paleontologist Mary Schweitzer found evidence of blood cells preserved inside T. rex fossils.

But what's so exciting about this new study is that the fossils used, unlike Schweitzer's, aren't particularly well-preserved. 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.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: dinosaurs; dna; fauxiantrolls; genetics; godsgravesglyphs; maryschweitzer; paleontology; scientists; sergiobertazzo; susannahmaidment; unitedkingdom
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To: 5th MEB

.
>> “I have no idea what constitutes a day to GOD” <<

.
Well, whatever it is, he expects us to honor the seventh one and keep it Holy!


121 posted on 06/09/2015 4:58:20 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Tucker39

“Isn’t it interesting that the pseudo scientists who made the discovery are attempting to get the news out, while fatidiously skating around any mention that these discoveries knock their whole “billions and billions” lash-up into a cocked hat?!”

No one claims that dinosaurs are “billions and billions” of years old.


122 posted on 06/09/2015 4:59:52 PM PDT by Fuzz
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To: Fuzz

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Of course its serious.

Do you ever read any medieval literature?
.


123 posted on 06/09/2015 5:00:05 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Advil000

“It’s simply a mathematical impossibility that you are going to find preserved soft tissue remains in something 75 million years old.”

Interesting, but total nonsense.


124 posted on 06/09/2015 5:01:31 PM PDT by Fuzz
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To: Fuzz; Tucker39

.

It K-Os 65 million just as thoroughly.

It K-Os 65 thousand too.
.


125 posted on 06/09/2015 5:02:25 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Fuzz; Advil000

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What is total nonsense are your inane replies.
.

The impossibility is more biological than mathematical. math is neutral to the magnitude of numbers.


126 posted on 06/09/2015 5:05:19 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: editor-surveyor

“Of course its serious.

Do you ever read any medieval literature?”

Yes, I have. That proves dragons lived in Europe in the 1400’s? Columbus should have brought one over with him.


127 posted on 06/09/2015 5:11:07 PM PDT by Fuzz
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To: editor-surveyor

“It’s simply a mathematical impossibility that you are going to find preserved soft tissue remains in something 75 million years old.”

I’m sorry, I obviously haven’t seen the math that proves this. Please link so I can learn more about it.


128 posted on 06/09/2015 5:14:32 PM PDT by Fuzz
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To: Red Badger

I’ve often wondered that myself. Nobody has ever seen a dragon, but every culture has them, even the Aztecs.....................

* * *

We don’t *really* know that *all* the dinosaurs died out in the great extinction. If even a few of them survived in pockets here and there until, say, the Pleistocene, there could be myths handed down. And the bones probably wouldn’t have survived if the cave people used them for various things.


129 posted on 06/09/2015 5:37:56 PM PDT by Hetty_Fauxvert (FUBO, and the useful idiots you rode in on!)
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To: ETL
 photo Raquel-Welch-raquel-welch-one-million-years-de_zpsr2iuncti.jpg

What say you there, fuzzy britches? Feel like talking?

130 posted on 06/09/2015 5:42:24 PM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: TexasGator

Awesome post and well said.


131 posted on 06/09/2015 5:45:59 PM PDT by hawkaw
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To: editor-surveyor

It K-Os 3 thousand too.


132 posted on 06/09/2015 5:48:54 PM PDT by TexasGator
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To: JoeProBono

If she’s a paleontologist, I picked the wrong major in college.


133 posted on 06/09/2015 5:50:26 PM PDT by Drew68
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To: editor-surveyor

This article references this one from 2006:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaur-shocker-115306469/?no-ist

Where a 65 million year old T-rex fossilized bone was dissolved in acid to see what remained. They found stretchy remains. Tissue. Actual soft tissue. A chunk of it. Red blood cells too.

Here’s my beef. By any reasonable rules of decay, there should simply be no chance in a million that pliable soft tissue and red blood cells would remain intact no matter how they became fossilized for 60+ million years.

Here is my point. You can make the argument both ways on this.

1) It’s amazing that something carbon dated at 65 million years has soft tissue in it! Remarkable!!!

2) It’s amazing that carbon dating placed something at 65 million years old when it clearly has soft tissue in it. We had better check the validity of carbon dating!!!

Either statement is potentially valid about the results, unless you want to scream, “The science is settled.” And shut everyone down.


134 posted on 06/09/2015 6:01:47 PM PDT by Advil000
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To: SoFloFreeper

Yeah,

ugh, ugh, grunt, ugh, ugh...


135 posted on 06/09/2015 6:06:03 PM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: Advil000

“1) It’s amazing that something carbon dated at 65 million years ...

2) It’s amazing that carbon dating placed something at 65 million years old ....”

Both statements are invalid since carbon dating is only used to abou 50,000 years.


136 posted on 06/09/2015 6:35:29 PM PDT by TexasGator
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To: TexasGator; ETL

The pictures your posted look like the new Michelle Obama School Lunch Menu.


137 posted on 06/09/2015 7:18:35 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: editor-surveyor; fhayek

138 posted on 06/09/2015 7:27:20 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: editor-surveyor; fhayek

139 posted on 06/09/2015 7:31:23 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: TexasGator

Yes, very likely.


140 posted on 06/09/2015 7:43:03 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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