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We all remember how a team of scientists managed to bring back to life a bunch of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park using their DNA.
Although this is not the same situation, it somehow resembles it.
A team of paleontologists has discovered for the very first time dinosaur blood and soft tissue. The scientists collected it from dinosaur fossils that are more than 75 million years old.
According to the researchers, they found red blood cells in the fossils that belonged to the prehistoric creatures.
However, the scientists said that they could not extract any genetic material from the fossils, so they will not be bringing T-rex back to life in the near future.
The fossils from where the paleontologists collected the dinosaur blood and soft cells belong to the Natural History Museum in London.
According to them, the artifacts were in very poor condition, but the museum representatives allowed the researchers to analyze eight of the fossils.
The researcher said they didn’t think they would find anything of scientific value when they first started analyzing the fossils.
But once they started breaking into them, they discovered traces of fossilized blood cells and collagen.
The blood cells were collected from a fossilized claw that belonged to a therapod, which is a group of dinosaurs that includes the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex and velociraptor.
Sergio Bertazzo, a researcher at the Imperial College London and one of the scientists who analyzed the samples, said that from what they’ve gathered, they are certain that some of the fossils contain red blood cells and collagen.
The team used a special technique to analyze and identify the dinosaur blood samples called mass spectrometry.
Using this scientific method, they were also able to find proteins and amino acids inside the fossils.
According to the experts, this is very rare, as these materials tend to break apart after four million years.
The paleontologists wonder how these samples of dinosaur soft tissue and blood cells managed to stay preserved for more than 70 million years.
Susannah Maidment, scientist at the Imperial College London, stated that further research is needed in order to determine how these samples did not disintegrate for such a long period of time.
By analyzing the samples, the scientists will be able to provide answers to questions such as “were the dinosaurs cold or warm-blooded creatures, or a combination of both?”
The latest discovery was detailed in the journal Nature Communications.
Image Source: discoverynews
