SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 3: Soft Tissue Found Inside Dinosaur Bones

You probably know that dinosaurs became extinct millions of years ago. Because of this, one of the only ways we have of learning about them is to study their fossilized bones. Unfortunately, there are still many questions about the anatomy and physiology of dinosaurs that are unanswered because the soft tissues of the body have not been preserved. Soft tissues, such as skin, muscle and the internal organs, decay quickly and do not fossilize.

But scientists recently discovered that some soft dinosaur tissue still exists. In the March 25 issue of the journal Science, researchers from Kansas reported that they have found the first sample of soft tissue from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The dinosaur, also known as B. Rex, is estimated to have died 68 million years ago and its fossils were discovered in a dig in Montana during 2000.

B. Rex is the oldest Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found, but he is not the best preserved. The researchers found the soft tissue just by looking in a place where no one had thought to look before--inside the bones.

The tissue was found by basically dissolving the outer, bony portion of the rear thigh bone, leaving only the inner matrix. Within this matrix, they found semi-transparent vessels and other tiny structures that looked like bone cells. Surprisingly, these bone cells looked very similar to bone cells from the ostrich.

These cells of B. Rex may go on to tell us many more things about dinosaurs, such as whether they were warm or cold blooded, or how dinosaurs are related to modern day animals

One thing the cells will not be able to do is produce another dinosaur like the ones created in the movie "Jurassic Park." The researchers state it would be impossible for DNA to survive that long.

--Written by Kristine Thornley

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