Philosophy
This is a healthy approach to a recently discovered find regarding 65+ million year old dinosaur tissue.
Soft tissue taken from preserved dinosaur bones may not be dinosaur protein at all, but bacteria, paleontologists said on Tuesday.
Dinosaur experts made headlines around the world when they found what appeared to be soft tissue in a broken Tyrannosaurus rex thighbone.
Last April, a team at Harvard University in Massachusetts said they had analyzed a small amount of protein from the sample and shown it had characteristics of living bird and, more distantly, alligators.
But paleontologist Thomas Kaye of the University of Washington in Seattle challenges this idea and says he has seen similar structures and shown them to be bacteria. Specifically, he said, the structures look like bacterial biofilm, a slimy substance that the microbes often form.
"We are not experts in the field," Kaye admitted in a telephone interview. "We are not disagreeing with the fact that their instruments detected protein. We are offering an alternative explanation."
Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina State University had analyzed the material taken from the 68-million-year-old thighbone and found not only what looked like collagen, but structures akin to tiny blood vessels.
Kaye, who looks at ancient material using an electron microscope, said he was trying to duplicate their findings. He said he went to the same formation where Schweitzer's sample came from, dug up a 65-million-year-old dinosaur bone, cracked it open, and looked at it.
Writing in the Public Library of Science journal PloS One, he said he dissolved tissue in acid just as Schweitzer had done.
"What had been identified as remnants of blood cells were actually structures called framboids -- microscopic mineral spheres that contain iron," Kaye's team reported.
They tested a variety of other bones, including a turtle's, and found similar structures.
"We determined that these structures were too common to be exceptionally preserved tissue. We realized it couldn't be a one-time exceptional preservation," Kaye said.
He believes what was really inside the T. rex bone was biofilm created by bacteria that grew inside now-disappeared blood vessels and cells.
Schweitzer's team said they had found unusually well preserved tissue and said it was unlikely to have survived in many samples.
Dinosaur soft tissue find—a stunning rebuttal of "millions of years"
Dinosaur Soft Tissue Sequenced; Similar to Chicken Proteins
NC State Paleontologist Discovers Soft Tissue in Dinosaur Bones
- The Really, Really Big Dinosaur
"'Biggest dinosaur ever' discovered" by James Morgan May 16th, 2014 BBC News Based on its huge thigh bones, it was 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall. Weighing in at 77 tonnes, it was as heavy as 14 African elephants, and seven tonnes heavier...
- T. Rex Has Company
"Meet the newly discovered dinosaur that even tyrannosaurs were afraid of" by Lance Tillson November 23rd, 2013 National Monitor Researchers from The Field Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS) and North Carolina State University...
- Dna...time For Debate And Renewed Analysis
"Research Calls Forensic DNA Technique Into Question" by Brandon Keim March 3rd, 2010 Wired A DNA-matching technique often used in forensics has been called to the stand. Fine-grained analysis of DNA found in cell structures called mitochondria suggests...
- Charles R. Knight...father Of Dinosaur Art
Charles Robert Knight October 21st, 1874 to April 15th, 1953 Yesterday I mentioned Rudolph F. Zallinger's "The Age of Reptiles" and should have made note of Charles Knight, the father of "dinosaur art" who was born October 21st, 1874. Bill Ashworth...
- Bambiraptor Purloined For Bucks
This is not good, but not new. Remember Sue the T. Rex? Sue Hendrickson, amateur paleontologist, discovered the most complete (more than 90%) and, until 2001, the largest, Tyrannosaurus fossil skeleton known in the Hell Creek Formation near Faith, South...
Philosophy
Good science among paleontologists
This is a healthy approach to a recently discovered find regarding 65+ million year old dinosaur tissue."Scientists question dinosaur soft tissue find"
by
Maggie Fox
July 29th, 2008
Reuters
by
Maggie Fox
July 29th, 2008
Reuters
Soft tissue taken from preserved dinosaur bones may not be dinosaur protein at all, but bacteria, paleontologists said on Tuesday.
Dinosaur experts made headlines around the world when they found what appeared to be soft tissue in a broken Tyrannosaurus rex thighbone.
Last April, a team at Harvard University in Massachusetts said they had analyzed a small amount of protein from the sample and shown it had characteristics of living bird and, more distantly, alligators.
But paleontologist Thomas Kaye of the University of Washington in Seattle challenges this idea and says he has seen similar structures and shown them to be bacteria. Specifically, he said, the structures look like bacterial biofilm, a slimy substance that the microbes often form.
"We are not experts in the field," Kaye admitted in a telephone interview. "We are not disagreeing with the fact that their instruments detected protein. We are offering an alternative explanation."
Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina State University had analyzed the material taken from the 68-million-year-old thighbone and found not only what looked like collagen, but structures akin to tiny blood vessels.
Kaye, who looks at ancient material using an electron microscope, said he was trying to duplicate their findings. He said he went to the same formation where Schweitzer's sample came from, dug up a 65-million-year-old dinosaur bone, cracked it open, and looked at it.
Writing in the Public Library of Science journal PloS One, he said he dissolved tissue in acid just as Schweitzer had done.
"What had been identified as remnants of blood cells were actually structures called framboids -- microscopic mineral spheres that contain iron," Kaye's team reported.
They tested a variety of other bones, including a turtle's, and found similar structures.
"We determined that these structures were too common to be exceptionally preserved tissue. We realized it couldn't be a one-time exceptional preservation," Kaye said.
He believes what was really inside the T. rex bone was biofilm created by bacteria that grew inside now-disappeared blood vessels and cells.
Schweitzer's team said they had found unusually well preserved tissue and said it was unlikely to have survived in many samples.
Dinosaur soft tissue find—a stunning rebuttal of "millions of years"
Dinosaur Soft Tissue Sequenced; Similar to Chicken Proteins
NC State Paleontologist Discovers Soft Tissue in Dinosaur Bones
- The Really, Really Big Dinosaur
"'Biggest dinosaur ever' discovered" by James Morgan May 16th, 2014 BBC News Based on its huge thigh bones, it was 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall. Weighing in at 77 tonnes, it was as heavy as 14 African elephants, and seven tonnes heavier...
- T. Rex Has Company
"Meet the newly discovered dinosaur that even tyrannosaurs were afraid of" by Lance Tillson November 23rd, 2013 National Monitor Researchers from The Field Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS) and North Carolina State University...
- Dna...time For Debate And Renewed Analysis
"Research Calls Forensic DNA Technique Into Question" by Brandon Keim March 3rd, 2010 Wired A DNA-matching technique often used in forensics has been called to the stand. Fine-grained analysis of DNA found in cell structures called mitochondria suggests...
- Charles R. Knight...father Of Dinosaur Art
Charles Robert Knight October 21st, 1874 to April 15th, 1953 Yesterday I mentioned Rudolph F. Zallinger's "The Age of Reptiles" and should have made note of Charles Knight, the father of "dinosaur art" who was born October 21st, 1874. Bill Ashworth...
- Bambiraptor Purloined For Bucks
This is not good, but not new. Remember Sue the T. Rex? Sue Hendrickson, amateur paleontologist, discovered the most complete (more than 90%) and, until 2001, the largest, Tyrannosaurus fossil skeleton known in the Hell Creek Formation near Faith, South...