Researchers from North Carolina State University have determined that the structures found within an 80-million-year-old fossil are, in fact, the dinosaur’s preserved blood vessels—findings that add to the growing pile of evidence showing that certain soft tissue structures can actually survive millions of years.
Molecular paleontologist Tim Cleland was the one who began the experiment, by demineralizing (stripping the bone from) a fossil. This bone came from the leg of a Brachylophosaurus canadensis—a 30-foot-long hadrosaur (duckbilled dinosaur) that pottered about what is now known as Montana.
According to the paper published in the Journal of Proteome Research, after the bone was stripped away, what was left were structures, which resembled blood vessels in their location, morphology, flexibility, and transparency. However, researchers weren’t certain whether these structures were blood vessels, or something left behind by bacteria, slime molds, or fungi—until they were examined using high resolution mass spectroscopy.
Using this technology, the scientists discovered the structures contained multiple proteins that are specific to blood vessels, including myosin, or the protein found in the type of muscle within blood vessel walls.
The team then stripped the bone minerals away from bone samples of modern archosaurs (animals such as chickens), which are the living relatives of the dinosaurs. When these vessels were examined, their peptide sequences—the specific order of the building blocks of their proteins—matched those of the vessels found in the hadrosaur. Following this, the team was able to confirm several previously found dinosaur peptide sequences and to add a few new ones to the list.
Study first of its kind, but no real-life Jurassic Park in the works
“This study is the first direct analysis of blood vessels from an extinct organism, and provides us with an opportunity to understand what kinds of proteins and tissues can persist and how they change during fossilization,” said Cleland, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, in a statement. “This will provide new avenues for pursuing questions regarding the evolutionary relationships of extinct organisms, and will identify significant protein modifications and when they might have arisen in these lineages.”
“Part of the value of this research is that it gives us insight into how proteins can modify and change over 80 million years,” added co-author Mary Schweitzer, a molecular paleontologist at NC State. “It tells us not only about how tissues preserve over time, but gives us the possibility of looking at how these animals adapted to their environment while they were alive.”
And, for everyone suddenly dreaming of a real-life Jurassic Park despite the repeated warnings given in the films, no such luck: No extractable DNA was found in the bones.
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Feature Image: M. Schweitzer, NC State University
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