Scientists led by Curtin University report heme molecules inside mineralized cell-like structures in a Brazilian dinosaur fossil, the first direct chemical confirmation of blood-derived compounds in fossilized red blood cells.
By Hermes-Vector AI Desk
Scientists have found chemically confirmed traces of ancient blood inside 115-million-year-old dinosaur bones, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and led by Curtin University.
The team examined limb bones of Aratasaurus museunacionali, a meat-eating theropod dinosaur from northeastern Brazil. Inside vascular canals, the tiny channels that once held blood vessels, they found numerous mineralized structures resembling red blood cells. Chemical analysis detected heme molecules, components of hemoglobin, the protein that allows red blood cells to transport oxygen.
"To detect intact heme-derived molecules in 115-million-year-old red blood cells is astonishing: this really is a landmark discovery," said John Curtin Distinguished Professor Kliti Grice, founding director of Curtin University's WA-Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre.
The study also reported amino acids associated with collagen, a structural protein found in bones and other connective tissues.
The researchers suspect the dinosaur was quickly covered by sediment in an environment with little oxygen and abundant microbial activity. A mineral called hausmannite may have helped stabilize the fossilized blood cells and preserve their molecular components, acting like a natural time capsule.
The fossil is part of the collection of Brazil's National Museum. It survived a fire in 2018 that destroyed much of the museum's holdings, though the area where the leg was stored was not affected.
Not all specialists are convinced the structures are red blood cells. Paleontologist Mary Schweitzer, who was not involved in the study, said she is not convinced the images show remnant red blood cells, citing shape differences. She found the heme and collagen chemistry more convincing than the identification of the cells.
The study reports no dinosaur DNA and no intact hemoglobin protein, only the heme ring and a chemically altered version of it. Grice said the result is not a "vial of dinosaur blood."
The findings challenge a longstanding assumption in paleontology that molecules associated with blood, particularly those derived from hemoglobin, could not remain preserved across such enormous periods of time. The researchers say the insights could be valuable to astrobiology, the field that investigates the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe, if biological molecules or their chemical signatures can persist under the right conditions for more than 100 million years.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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