Scientists Recover Tissue From T Rex

For more than a century, the study of dinosaurs has been limited tofossilized bones. Now, researchers have recovered 70-million-year-old softtissue, including what may be blood vessels and cells, from a Tyrannosaurusrex.

Ifscientists can isolate proteins from the material, they may be able to learnnew details of how dinosaurs lived, said lead researcher Mary Higby Schweitzerof North Carolina State University.

"We'redoing a lot of stuff in the lab right now that looks promising," she said in atelephone interview. But, she said, she does not know yet if scientists will beable to isolate dinosaur DNA from the materials.

Itwas recovered dinosaur DNA _ the blueprint for life that was featured in thefictional recreation of the ancient animals in the book and film "JurassicPark."

Thesoft tissues were recovered from the thighbone of a T. rex, known as MOR 1125,that was found in a sandstone formation in Montana. The dinosaur was about 18years old when it died.

Thebone was broken when it was removed from the site. Schweitzer and hercolleagues then analyzed the material inside the bone.

"Thevessels and contents are similar in all respects to blood vessels recoveredfrom ... ostrich bone," they reported in a paper bring published Friday in thejournal Science.

Becauseevidence has accumulated in recent years that modern birds descended fromdinosaurs, Schweitzer said she chose to compare the dinosaur remains with thoseof an ostrich, the largest bird available.

BrooksHanson, a deputy editor of Science, noted that there are few examples of softtissues, except for leaves or petrified wood, that are preserved as fossils,just as there are few discoveries of insects in amber or humans and mammoths inpeat or ice.

Softtissues are rare in older finds. "That's why in a 70-million-year-old fossilit is so interesting," he said.

MatthewCarrano, curator of dinosaurs at the Smithsonian's National Museum of NaturalHistory, said the discovery was "pretty exciting stuff."

"Youare actually getting into the small-scale biology of the animal, which issomething we rarely get the opportunity to look at," said Carrano, who was notpart of the research team.

Inaddition, he said, it is a huge opportunity to learn more about how fossils aremade, a process that is not fully understood.

RichardA. Hengst of Purdue University said the finding "opens the door for researchinto the protein structure of ancient organisms, if nothing else. While wethink that nature is conservative in how things are built, this givesscientists an opportunity to observe this at the chemical and cellular level."Hengst was not part of the research team.

JohnR. Horner of the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University, said thediscovery is "a fantastic specimen," but probably is not unique. Otherresearchers might find similarly preserved soft tissues if they split open thebones in their collections, said Horner, a co-author of the paper.

Mostmuseums, he said, prefer to keep their specimens intact.

Schweitzersaid that after removing the minerals from the specimen, the remaining tissueswere soft and transparent and could be manipulated with instruments.

Thebone matrix was stretchy and flexible, she said. Also, there were longstructures like blood vessels. What appeared to be individual cells werevisible.

Shedid not know if they were blood cells. "They are little round cells,"Schweitzer said.

Shelikened the process to placing a chicken bone in vinegar. The minerals willdissolve, leaving the soft tissues.

Theresearch was funded by North Carolina State University and grants from N.Myhrvold and the National Science Foundation.