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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:
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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.
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presents the novel idea that people can retrieve what once
existed as soft tissue inside a dinosaur's bones.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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