British scientists have found any traces of cells and collagen in dinosaur fossils with an age of 75 million years, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications .
Researchers have found structures that could be red blood cells and collagen fibers similar to dinosaur bones belonging to the Cretaceous period, which ranges from the late Jurassic period (about 145 million years ago) until the beginning of Paleocene (65 million years ago) -..
This finding shows that the remains of organic structures in fossils may be more common than previously thought
Previously, they had located soft tissue components such as cells and molecules similar to proteins in other fossils tens of millions of years old, but only in exceptionally well preserved specimens.
The identification of these tissues also raised controversy in the scientific community.
It was long believed that the protein molecules decomposed in a short period of time, and are not kept for more than 4 million years.
Sergio Bertazzo and Susannah Maidment, researchers from Imperial College London who led the work, have reported finding traces of organic structures in eight dinosaurs of the Cretaceous, the last period of the Mesozoic Era.
Some of those bones belonging to one of the dinosaurs, contain similar to collagen, a protein that has a braided form characteristic structures and consists of essential amino acids.
The study could be key to paleontologists , it opens the door to understanding the biology of prehistoric animal and the relationship between different species.
Bertazzo has called for caution before the findings and said they need further research to confirm “what we are seeing in the fragments of dinosaur. “
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