Soft Tissue Discovered In T-Rex Bone

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Sunday October 1, 2006 @06:28AM from the tastes-like-ostrich dept.

kubla2000 writes, "Paleontologists have discovered soft tissue inside the fossilized thigh bone of a T-Rex. The tissue included blood vessels, bone cells, and perhaps even blood cells." From the article: "When paleontologists find fossilized dinosaur bones during a dig, they usually do everything in their power to protect them, using tools like toothbrushes to carefully unearth the bones without inflicting any damage. However, when scientists found a massive Tyrannosaurus rex thigh bone in a remote region of Montana a few months ago, they were forced to break the bone in two in order to fit it into the transport helicopter. This act of necessity revealed a startling surprise: soft tissue that had seemingly resisted fossilization still existed inside the bone. This tissue... was so well preserved that it was still stretchy and flexible."

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OLD Repost! by Anonymous Coward · 2006-10-01 06:33 · Score: 5, Informative

Dude, this is a YEAR OLD! And slashdot ran this exact same story last year. Look at the dates on the pictures!

Credit: From Schweitzer et al., Science 307:1952-1955 (2005). Reprinted with permission from AAAS.

Geez!