Dinosaur Bone From Brazil Holds Cell-Like Structures and Chemical Traces of Blood, Study Says
Researchers studying a 115-million-year-old dinosaur fossil from Brazil report microscopic structures resembling fossilised red blood cells, along with chemical signals linked to heme, the iron-containing molecule in hemoglobin, Reuters reported. The study was published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The fossil belongs to Aratasaurus museunacionali, a bipedal theropod about 3.1 metres long that died at about four years old. It was found in a gypsum mine in Ceará state in northeastern Brazil and includes parts of the right thigh bone, shin and foot. The team found the cell-like structures inside the bone’s blood-vessel canals, and also detected collagen-related amino acids.
The researchers stress the limits of the finding. Lead author Kliti Grice of Curtin University in Perth said: “What we are seeing is a mineral and molecular echo of ancient biology.” The study does not show that dinosaur DNA survived, and she warned that preserved cell-like structures and heme signals do not mean the DNA once held in the cells has survived. Co-author Alexander Kellner of the National Museum of Brazil took part in the work.
Source: reuters.com (PNAS)
