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NOVA scienceNOW: T. Rex Blood?
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Program Overview
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Scientists studying material extracted from the
interior of remarkably well-preserved fossilized dinosaur bones have made an
astonishing discovery—delicate soft-tissue structures, including possible
blood vessels and red blood cells. These tissues could yield important
biological clues and shed considerable light on dinosaur physiology.
This NOVA scienceNOW segment:
describes the
discovery of an unusual trove of extraordinarily well-preserved dinosaur
skeletons from the African island of Madagascar. The bones, 65 to 70 million
years old, are unstained and free of minerals such as iron and manganese that
typically build up in fossils. presents the
novel idea that people can retrieve what once existed as soft tissue inside a
dinosaur's bones. details how
paleobiologist Mary Schweitzer soaked fossil samples in acid to dissolve away
the mineral part of bone and revealed the inner tissues, which were spongy,
flexible, and soft. reports
that Schweitzer found what appear to be transparent, hollow, flexible,
branching blood vessels containing red blood cells as well as osteocytes, the
cells that produced bone when the dinosaur was alive. explains that
these soft tissues can reveal vast amounts of biological information, such as
how quickly dinosaurs grew, diseases that afflicted dinosaurs, how an
individual dinosaur might have died, how closely related birds and dinosaurs
are, and whether dinosaurs were warm- or cold-blooded. suggests that
the soft, organic tissues inside a bone can undergo their own kind of
fossilization, bonding with the surrounding soil, minerals, and bacteria to
form bundles of tough, chemically altered molecules that can defy the odds and
last through the ages.
Taping Rights: Can be used up to one year after the program is taped off the air.
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