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Scientists just found soft tissue inside a dinosaur fossil. Here's why that's exciting.
Vox.com ^ | June 9, 2015 | Joseph Stromberg

Posted on 06/09/2015 12:22:24 PM PDT by ETL

Dinosaur fossils, it was long thought, are simple objects. The fossilization process leaves the overall shape of a dinosaur's bones intact, but all the microscopic structures inside them — the blood cells, connective fibers, and other sorts of soft tissue — inevitably decay over time.

dino collagen
The photo above, from a new study published today in Nature Communications and led by Sergio Bertazzo of Imperial College London, shows an extremely zoomed-in view of a 75-million-year-old theropod claw, taken from the London Natural History Museum's collection. When researchers scraped tiny pieces off the fossil and looked at them under an electron microscope, they found tiny structures that look a lot like collagen fibers present in our own ligaments, tendons, and bones.

In other dinosaur fossils, the researchers found features that resemble red blood cells. Tests showed that they have a similar chemical composition to the blood of an emu (a bird thought to be a relatively close relative to dinosaurs).


The idea that dinosaur fossils might harbor soft tissue first surfaced about a decade ago, when paleontologist Mary Schweitzer found evidence of blood cells preserved inside T. rex fossils.

But what's so exciting about this new study is that the fossils used, unlike Schweitzer's, aren't particularly well-preserved. Susannah Maidment, one of the paleontologists who worked on the paper, called them "crap" specimens. If they have preserved soft tissue inside them, it could be a sign that thousands of other fossils in museum collections do too.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: dinosaurs; dna; fauxiantrolls; genetics; godsgravesglyphs; maryschweitzer; paleontology; scientists; sergiobertazzo; susannahmaidment; unitedkingdom
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To: central_va
my tissues aren’t soft now.

Mine are.

Dammit.

81 posted on 06/09/2015 2:09:32 PM PDT by null and void (I wish we lived in less interesting times, but at least we have front-row seats.)
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To: Vigilanteman
Of course, they co-existed with humans. Anyone who has ever watched an episode of The Flintstones knows that.

Looks like you were right! After some extensive research I came across this...

Os Flintstones

The Flintstones The Flintstones Wallpaper

82 posted on 06/09/2015 2:10:00 PM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion
That first picture looks more like a salad bar...

Captions are apparently screwed up a bit.

83 posted on 06/09/2015 2:11:28 PM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: JoeProBono

What cast?


84 posted on 06/09/2015 2:12:52 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a stLikeatement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: stormer

Hey! It’s still a semi-free country, especially for anyone who cobbles together cock and bull stories about how some of these things MIGHT have happened, etc., etc. They are never required to PROVE any of it. As long as it contradicts the Scriptures and casts doubts on the concept of relatively recent Special Creation these story tellers are lauded and applauded as great sages. I choose to believe the Scriptures, and take all these just-so stories with 10 lbs of salt.
Happy trails.


85 posted on 06/09/2015 2:13:57 PM PDT by Tucker39 (Welcome to America! Now speak English; and keep to the right....In driving, in Faith, and politics.)
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To: BenLurkin

So much for “soft tissue”.


86 posted on 06/09/2015 2:21:48 PM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: Lurking Libertarian

The finding of bones would not engender the stories of such specific battles between men and dragons.

And Cat 350 excavators, D-9, D-10, and D-11 dozers were also in short supply.

The creatures are still alive in the Congo today, and likely were more wide spread at that time.

You really seem to be straining at the obvious.
.


87 posted on 06/09/2015 2:24:31 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: TexasGator

The witches are here today, and every bit as humanistic and evil.


88 posted on 06/09/2015 2:27:22 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Tucker39
Isn’t it interesting that the pseudo scientists who made the discovery are attempting to get the news out, while fatidiously skating around any mention that these discoveries knock their whole “billions and billions” lash-up into a cocked hat?!

Kinda screws with the narrative the they just made it all up, doesn't it?

89 posted on 06/09/2015 2:29:53 PM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Born to Conserve

Obviously that tissue is not even close to 6000 years old.

1000 years at the outside. (and even that presumes perfect conditions )
.


90 posted on 06/09/2015 2:30:12 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: ETL

“Life finds a way.”


91 posted on 06/09/2015 2:32:05 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: ETL

Bakker is a stubborn bone head.

Evolution was dead when Darwin published, and he had often acknowledged it.


92 posted on 06/09/2015 2:32:31 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: ETL

As we see on this thread, again and again and again, young-earthers sacrifice the Queen of God’s existence in order to save the Pawn of bibical inerrancy.


93 posted on 06/09/2015 2:35:14 PM PDT by Eric Pode of Croydon (I hate terrorism. But I hate tyranny more.)
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To: TexasGator

***Occam’s Razor would say that if it is not that old we would be finding the protein remains in all the fossils ... but we do not.***

Occam’s Razor talks about protein? :-)

The current scientific paradigm would say that no soft tissue or red blood cells (or stretchy ligament that still snaps back into place like Mary Schweitzer found) would last anywhere near 65 million years and therefore would not be found in the specimen..... but it was and continues to be, so they have to come up with something.

It seems to me that the most logical explanation (and simplest....Occam’s Razor) is that it is not that old..... but evolutionists absolutely cannot go down that road, so what they do is try to come up with an explanation, any explanation, that supports their tautology.

Science establishment will not go down any road that might lead away from evolution. In the end, this hinders the advancement of science instead of helping it.


94 posted on 06/09/2015 2:35:29 PM PDT by schaef21
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To: Eric Pode of Croydon
As we see on this thread, again and again and again, young-earthers sacrifice the Queen of God’s existence in order to save the Pawn of bibical inerrancy.

Queen of God’s existence ???

95 posted on 06/09/2015 2:39:42 PM PDT by Popman (Christ Alone: My Cornerstone...)
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To: Red Badger

No one was present for creation, yet every culture has a story for it. It speaks to the imagination of humans, nothing more.


96 posted on 06/09/2015 2:41:02 PM PDT by Benito Cereno
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To: JoeProBono

What dinosaur fossil, there was a dinosaur fossil?


97 posted on 06/09/2015 2:45:41 PM PDT by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: Tucker39

At least they are looking for proof and are not relying on a 3,000 year old book written by shepherds and fishermen. As far as I have read in this article, nothing suggests that they found soft tissue. They found fossilized remains that “look like” soft tissue structures. Big difference.


98 posted on 06/09/2015 2:48:30 PM PDT by Benito Cereno
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To: Red Badger

I was taught that this animal was a crocodile but I do wonder about this...Job 41 (God is speaking as He does at times in song)

“I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
Or his mighty strength, or his [k]orderly frame.
13
“Who can strip off his outer armor?
Who can come within his double mail?
14
“Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth there is terror.
15
“His strong scales are his pride,
Shut up as with a tight seal.
16
“One is so near to another
That no air can come between them.
17
“They are joined one to another;
They clasp each other and cannot be separated.
18
“His sneezes flash forth light,
And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19
“Out of his mouth go burning torches;
Sparks of fire leap forth.
20
“Out of his nostrils smoke goes forth
As from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
21
“His breath kindles coals,
And a flame goes forth from his mouth.
22
“In his neck lodges strength,
And dismay leaps before him.
23
“The folds of his flesh are joined together,
Firm on him and immovable.
24
“His heart is as hard as a stone,
Even as hard as a lower millstone.
25
“When he raises himself up, the mighty fear;
Because of the crashing they are bewildered.
26
“The sword that reaches him cannot avail,
Nor the spear, the dart or the javelin.
27
“He regards iron as straw,
Bronze as rotten wood.
28
“The arrow cannot make him flee;
Slingstones are turned into stubble for him.
29
“Clubs are regarded as stubble;
He laughs at the rattling of the javelin.
30
“His underparts are like sharp potsherds;
He spreads out like a threshing sledge on the mire.
31
“He makes the depths boil like a pot;
He makes the sea like a jar of ointment.
32
“Behind him he makes a wake to shine;
One would think the deep to be gray-haired.
33
“Nothing on earth is like him,
One made without fear.
34
“He looks on everything that is high;
He is king over all the sons of pride.”


99 posted on 06/09/2015 2:48:56 PM PDT by huldah1776
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To: ETL

That is one well preserved Rach

TT


100 posted on 06/09/2015 2:56:43 PM PDT by TexasTransplant (Idiocracy used to just be a Movie... Live every day as your last...one day you will be right)
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