Let's get this over with.
Posted on 05/01/2009 11:43:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The fossilized leg of an 80-million-year-old duck-billed dinosaur has yielded the oldest known proteins preserved in soft tissue—including blood vessels and other connective tissue as well as perhaps blood cell proteins—a new study says.
The research was led by the team behind the controversial 2007 discovery of protein from similar soft tissues in 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex bones.
"It was not a one-hit wonder," said John Asara of Harvard Medical School, who led the protein-sequence analysis.
(See a prehistoric time line)
Well-Preserved Dinosaur
The proteins were recovered from a hadrosaur femur that had been encased in sandstone, which appears to prevent complete tissue degradation, Asara said.
Preliminary microscopic analysis revealed structures resembling blood vessels, cells, and collagen, he noted.
Those initial speculations were confirmed by applying antibodies to the tissue that are known to react with proteins. The tests suggested the presence of collagen and other proteins, including hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells.
Dinosaur Blood Cells?
The hints of hemoglobin remain speculative and are not covered in the new, peer-reviewed study, which appears in today's issue of the journal Science.
Some scientists suspect the hemoglobin is a contaminant.
If it's not a contaminant, "it is much bigger news than [the confirmed discoveries of blood vessels and other connective tissues in] this paper," said Pavel Pevzner, a computational biologist at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the new research.
A confirmed dinosaur-hemoglobin discovery would open the door to the recovery of many dinosaur proteins, including DNA proteins, he noted—raising the specter of Jurassic Park-style "resurrections."
Study co-author Asara said that, so far, there's not much his team can say about the hemoglobin, which is difficult to identify with current technology.
"Although, we don't believe that it is contamination."
Fleshing Out the Family Tree
Asara analyzed the tissue samples with a mass spectrometer, which reveals chemical makeup by telling scientists the masses of different elements in a sample.
He uncovered eight collagen proteins, and a colleague compared them with samples from living animals as well as mastodon and T. rex fossils.
The results placed the duck-billed dinosaur, Brachylophosaurus canadensis, on the same family-tree branch as T. rex. And, as expected, both the duckbill and T. rex were more closely related to chickens and ostriches than to alligators and lizards.
New Respect?
The new study may dispel some of the controversy over the team's 2007 T. rex soft-tissue study—for example, critics argued that the tissue was actually introduced to the specimen through mishandling.
Ping
raising the specter of Jurassic Park-style “resurrections.”
Look son, when i bought you the T-rex you said would clean up after him. No get our side and clean up the mess he made with the neighbors.
Good post. Now can we finally get towards a consensus pro-evolution position as a party? If so, it will stop the left-wing attack machine from further undermining us.
Yeah man! We just have to tell the leftists that we are pro-evolution and they’ll totally never attack us again!!!
Relax, brother. It’s an issues that has traction with the voting public. They attack no matter what, but some issues stick and others make them look insane. This one sticks.
Sounds delicious.
They could have just stuck a needle in Helen Thomas’s rear end, and saved a lot of trouble!
You go first. ;)
It cant be 80 million years old then.
or it can, and just be well preserved.
read
Oh a consensus does give credibility right? Whether you realize it or not pro-evolution is anti-GOD and you want to be that then go join the left because they have the pro-evolution theme and a multitude of 'gods'.
theres no reason for the party not to say.its a non issue. people are free to believe as they see fit. its inclusive.
you’re confusing the Bible and God. the Bible has been in the hands of man and man is not infallible. God is infallible.
Hey stranger ....
Let's get this over with.
>>>Now can we finally get towards a consensus pro-evolution position as a party? If so, it will stop the left-wing attack machine from further undermining us.
Won’t happen. The flat earth brigade take too much pride in ignorance to permit. This story has already been posted as “proof” the theory of evolution is a knowing lie. Look it up if you feel the desire to see Biblical quotes offered as substitutes for hard science and reason. Amen.
And like all the similar daily flamebait threads it was posted and allowed to remain as NEWS, not CHAT as this and the other legitimate science threads. It’s like they positively want this all seen as a crackpot corner.
And thank goodness for spellcheck. That almost was crockpot corner, which actually might not be so bad.
Let me guess, you’re one of those “pro-general relativity” libs too! Go back to san francisco and stay blind to the Truth (TM).
/j/k
//this is actually pretty interesting news
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