Blood cells found in 75 million-year-old fossil fragments could unlock mystery of how dinosaurs evolved

  • Science
Credit: Harald Tittel/PA

The discovery of what appears to be red blood cells and collagen fibres in 75 million-year-old fossil fragments could hold the key to unlocking the mystery of how dinosaurs evolved.

Scientists from Imperial College London believe the discovery of the soft tissue may be a major step towards better understanding the biology of dinosaurs and the relationships between different species.

The red blood cells could help scientists to understand when dinosaurs evolved a warm blooded, bird-like metabolism and the collagen-like structures could provide evidence to show how various dinosaur groups are related to each other.

The discovery may also prompt questions about whether dinosaur DNA, which could hold the genetic code to clone one, might have survived as well.

Dr Sergio Bertazzo, a Junior Research Fellow from the Department of Materials at Imperial College London, said: "We still need to do more research to confirm what it is that we are imaging in these dinosaur bone fragments, but the ancient tissue structures we have analysed have some similarities to red blood cells and collagen fibres.

"If we can confirm that our initial observations are correct, then this could yield fresh insights into how these creatures once lived and evolved."

A zoom-in of potential red blood cells inside a fossil fragment that has been sliced open with a focused ion beam Credit: Imperial College London

Dr Susannah Maidment, a Junior Research Fellow working on the study added: "Early indications suggest that these poorly preserved fossils may be useful pieces in the dinosaur jigsaw puzzle to help us to understand in more detail how dinosaurs evolved into being warm blooded creatures, and how different dinosaur species were related."

Scientists discovered the genetic tissue in the remains of eight poorly preserved dinosaur fossils that had been housed in the Natural History Museum's Sternberg and Cutler collections for more than a century. It is the first time soft tissue has been found in a dinosaur fossil that has not been exceptionally well preserved.

Most of the fossils studied by the research team were fragments and included a claw from a meat-eating therapod and a toe bone from atriceratops-like animal.