80-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Fossil Has Original Blood Vessels

Researchers have identified blood vessel-like structures, which were found in an 80-million-year-old hadrosaur fossil, according to a study at North Carolina State University. The blood vessels belonged to the dinosaur, and they are now shedding light on how blood vessels and cells can maintain their structure for millions of years.

"This study is the first direct analysis of blood vessels from an extinct organism, and provides us with an opportunity to understand what kinds of proteins and tissues can persist and how they change during fossilization," Tim Cleland, lead author of the study and molecular paleontologist, said in a news release.

Cleland began the experiment by demineralizing a leg bone from a Brachylophosaurus Canadensis. The bone belonged to a 30-foot-long hadrosaur that roamed the territories of ancient Montana 80 million years ago. Cleland then used high resolution mass spectroscopy to analyze the bone, where he found varying types of proteins, such as myosin, which was found in the smooth muscles in the walls of blood vessels.

"Part of the value of this research is that it gives us insight into how proteins can modify and change over 80 million years," said Mary Schweitzer, co-author of the study and a molecular paleontologist at NC State. "It tells us not only about how tissues preserve over time, but gives us the possibility of looking at how these animals adapted to their environment while they were alive."

The findings of this study were published in the Journal of Proteome Research.

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