Scientists just found soft tissue inside a dinosaur fossil. Here's why that's exciting.

Vox.com ^ | June 9, 2015 | Joseph Stromberg

[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.

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.

[ETL]

[Alex Murphy]

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.

It could also be a sign that they're not as old as previously believed.

[C19fan]

Clone them!

[TexasGator]

"Scientists just found soft tissue tiny structures that look a lot like collagen fibers inside a dinosaur fossil."

[3boysdad]

Eggs-actly!

[Paul46360]

Yet inside B.O’s head there is NONE!!!!!

[Tennessean4Bush]

It could also be a sign that they're not as old as previously believed.

One of my first thoughts, as well. It will be interesting to see this develop...

[ETL]

Ping.

[2banana]

When does the dino park open????

[cuban leaf]

It could also be a sign that they’re not as old as previously believed.

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Yup.

[editor-surveyor]

.
With all the discussion of “dragons” embedded in every culture, obviously they were alive 600-800 years ago in Europe and Asia where those writings originated.
.

[BigEdLB]

Grandpa! Can they clone you???

[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?!

[JoeProBono]

Cast of a pedal phalanx and ungual (foot digit and claw) of a tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur, probably Gorgosaurus libratus, from Mid-Land Scientific Service of Canada. The original specimen was collected from the Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Red Deer River Valley, Alberta, Canada.

[TexasGator]

“With all the discussion of “dragons” embedded in every culture, obviously they were alive 600-800 years ago in Europe and Asia where those writings originated.”

With all the discussions of witches embedded in every culture, obviously the were alive 300-400 years ago in North America.

[central_va]

my tissues aren’t soft now.

[fhayek]

Sure. We can clone dinosaurs, or we could clone Ann-Margret. So, naturally, guess which one of the two the science geeks will clone...

[Red Badger]

emu (a bird thought to be a relatively close relative to dinosaurs).

Relatively speaking, of course...............

[ETL]

Thanks. A very interesting and exciting specimen! What’s that she’s holding?

[Red Badger]

Friday!......................
http://observationdeck.kinja.com/jurassic-world-is-so-great-i-think-i-never-want-to-see-1697189585