One of those "How did I miss this?" storiesFrom back in late March of 2005, as soft tissue was recovered from the femur of a 70 million year old Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Since prior to this it wasn't believed soft tissue could survive these millions of years this discovery at least threw open the idea that complex molecular structures such as RNA and DNA might also have remained intact.
A fuller report, drawing more closely from the source material, gives more details, such as these being tiny fragments that hadn't been fossilized. Presumably the fossilization of the rest of the structure created a sufficiently mineralized and impermeable shell that additional, mineral-laden water could no longer easily penetrate and so complete the process.
All of the pieces I'm seeing are from back in March of 2005, though one of the pieces speculates that the structures may be simply a form of non-mineral fossilization where a lipid-rich polymer may have replaced the original tissues, wherein other chemical mechanisms , which, while still exciting inasmuch that it may reveal subtler structures than familiar fossilization processes (where minerals replaced the organic materials), it may mean that no intact, original dinosaur protein may be present.
That would cetainly explain the subsequent lack of coverage, especially since the initial discovery seemed to be a starting gun firing, announcing the race among scientists at museums around the world to take a second look at their dinosaur collection, speculatively scanning or drilling into bones in search of something other than minerals.
Comments