Scientists see the softer side of Tyrannosaurus Rex [Surviving soft tissue w/ pics]

Science Now ^ | 10/1/2006 | staff

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

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

Dinosaur fossils are relatively rare, so scientists don’t like the concept of cutting them apart. However, now that that paleontologists have found soft tissue (above) inside a 70 million year old T. rex bone, more scientists may start to drill into their dino fossils.

[billorites]

[Bringbackthedraft]

Fiction becoming fact? Jurassic Park may actually become real? It don't take much, you know there is always someone out there that is just itching to try it.

[ahayes]

There's a typo in that site's headline, it should read "Science One and a Half Years Ago." ;-)

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

ping.

[NutCrackerBoy]

Bump.

[js1138]

There is no "tissue" in the sense of cells that might have DNA. And this is a year old, or more.

The scientist who found this material is on record as calling the "soft tissue" = "meat" crowd liars and morons.

[Hoplite]

It should be pointed out that the soft tissue wasn't soft when found.

When they dissolved the mineral deposits in the tissues, the authors were left with a flexible, stretchy material threaded with what looked like blood vessels. source

I believe this omission has caused a certain amount of controversy here on FR in the past.

[js1138]

Your pictures include a scale. Take a look at it. Here's your pictures, closer to actual size.

[null and void]

I believe this omission has caused a certain amount of controversy here on FR in the past.

Just a bit.

[ahayes]

There are some people who might be interested in this as a scientific discovery and not a springboard to hawk a certain ideology. To my knowledge the poster wasn't trying to misrepresent the findings.

[Coyoteman]

===> Placemarker <===

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Hmmm, interesting. Good points.

[Jaguarbhzrd]

Placemarker

[staytrue]

I don't think you can do the jurrasic park thing of blood in amber. But, the dna could leave enough residue that you could possibly interpret the data to reconstruct the base pairs data and then if you had the technical skill, to recreate the base pair sequence, one pair at a time.

[Moonman62]

I imagine if they cooked it up, it would taste like chicken.

[ahayes]

I doubt any DNA remains, it's probably completely shredded. Instead I hope some fragments of protein remain since it's a much tougher molecule. Some tests Dr. Schweitzer did suggest fragments of collagen may remain.

[burzum]

I don't care what controversy this has caused. Until T-rex's start throwing Jeeps around on a tropical island, I won't be satisfied.

The tissue doesn't have DNA? Excuses, excuses. Tsk, Tsk.

[KarlInOhio]

I was able to take the T-rex DNA from this find and fill in the missing parts with frog DNA just like on Jurassic Park. Here is the first dinosaur I've created:

I think may I need a little more T-rex DNA to get the full terror effect before I open my dinosaur theme park.

[staytrue]

I doubt any DNA remains, it's probably completely shredded.

Yes that is true, but there may be residuals that give hints to the base pair sequence. If each cell has 20-40 hints and you have millions of cells to work with, there may be enough to deduce the sequence.