75 Million-Year-Old Blood Cells Found in Dinosaur Fossils

British paleontologists from Imperial College London have found fossilized dinosaur blood for the first time, in a 75-million-year-old specimen. The team found round structures resembling red blood cells and strands resembling the protein collagen. When they ran a chemical analysis, the blood cells were similar to that of emus’, a relative of dinosaurs, and the collagen seemed to be made up of amino acids known to be common in the protein. The discovery is so exciting because the fossils in this study were utterly unremarkable. But the researchers did not find any genetic material in the dinosaur fossils, so to be clear: Jurassic Park has not happened. The fossilized blood cells were found in the claw of an a unidentified theropod. The collagen was found in several other bones, including ribs from unknown species or genuses. Furthermore, molecular analysis of the fossilized tissues,using a tool called a mass spectrometer, has revealed the fossils contain some of their original biological proteins and amino acids—molecules that are thought to degrade completely after 4 million years. So, the scientists were surprised about this discovery which found existence of 75 million years old Blood. Source: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150...