Scientists may have discovered blood cells from 115-million-year-old dinosaurs for the first time.
Scientists from Curtin University in Western Australia have analyzed the bones of an Aretosaurus that lived in Brazil 115 million years ago and say they have found fossilized blood cells.
Using an electron microscope, they discovered round structures resembling red blood cells, and chemical analysis confirmed the presence of heme, an organic compound that allows hemoglobin to carry oxygen.
But dinosaur bones have been found for so many years: why was blood discovered only now?
The fact is that tissues, cells, and other soft biological specimens are rarely preserved in the fossilization process. This is why even this study still has questions.
Professor Mary Schweitzer of the University of North Carolina points out that dinosaur blood cells have a nucleus that makes them convex on both sides. The structures discovered turned out to be concave (as in mammals) and could be something else.
Let's just say that these are really traces of blood. so what now?
According to scientists, this will allow "to ask more complex questions about the physiology of extinct animals".
For example, it will be possible to study the metabolism, the function of the tissues and even their level of activity.
At the same time, it is likely that it will not be possible to recreate dinosaur DNA, as in Jurassic Park, since heme and DNA are different molecules, and the discovery of one does not mean the safety of the other.
Video: Curtin University.