# Scientists recover T. rex soft tissue **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 24, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089 "2005-03-24T21:28:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/1 "2005-03-24T21:28:46Z")
[MSNBC Article](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7285683/). The pictures at the top of the page made my jaw drop. Wow. I mean, wow. I would think this would be bigger news. > [@MSNBC](#): > > Of course, the big question is whether it will be possible to see dinosaur DNA. “We don’t know yet. We are doing a lot in the lab now that looks promising,” Schweitzer said. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/2 "2005-03-24T21:40:46Z")
Wow. That’s amazing. 70 million year-old soft tissue! And from a _Tyrannosaurus rex_, no less–it would have been pretty frickin’ cool just to have found something like that from some obscure dinosaur that only paleontologists and 9-year-old boys have ever heard of. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/3 "2005-03-24T21:44:43Z")
Odd, tho, that would break the leg to get it to fit… I wanted to know how the preservation happened, but the article didn’t offer that info. Guess I’ll have to wait for August’s _Scientific American_ to find out. Unless they get a get a little news blurb in an earlier edition. Overall, it’s exciting. Thanks for the link. I just wish it had more or more detailed info. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/4 "2005-03-24T21:45:12Z")
It truly is incredible . . … how is such a thing _possible?_ I did groan when I saw this part of the article: > [@](#): > > The finding certainly shows fossilization does not proceed as science had assumed, Schweitzer said. Young Earth Creationists are going to have a _field day._ We’ll never hear the end of it. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/5 "2005-03-24T21:46:39Z")
Yeah, that is incredible. Here’s hoping for lots of answers. ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/6 "2005-03-24T21:48:16Z")
They found 70 million year old dinosaur meat? Someone’s got to be screwing with us. Someone at Reuter’s is trying to get fired, aren’t they? This is just too fucking cool to be true. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/7 "2005-03-24T21:52:15Z")
Am I the only one who thought “Oh great, Jurrasic Park is one step closer” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/8 "2005-03-24T21:55:39Z")
Oh wow… More and more now do I wish I had the marks and resources to go into Paleontology. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/9 "2005-03-24T21:56:15Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > Odd, tho, that would break the leg to get it to fit… Yes, that sounds like hooey to me. They’d get a bigger helicopter. 🙂 How is sandstone formed, by pressure? Maybe if the body was covered quickly soft tissue would remain. Seems as though it would have happened before, though. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/10 "2005-03-24T22:02:51Z")
The article did say that she’s since found more bones like that. I would love for this to be true, but it has too many open problems in the story as it is for me to trust it completely. (I have a problem with popular press filing scientific stories. They tend to get things a little mixed up, as I’ve seen in story after story about Astronomy, my lay science hobby. I’m going off to find out if there’s any other mentions of this anywhere. If not back in 20 days, send Stanley. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/11 "2005-03-24T22:02:49Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > Young Earth Creationists are going to have a _field day._ We’ll never hear the end of it. :smack: Crap, I hadn’t even thought of that. “So, those pointy-headed God-hating secular humanist scientists are telling us that stuff is 70 million years old? Yeah, right!” > [@Khan](#): > > They found 70 million year old dinosaur meat? Someone’s got to be screwing with us. Someone at Reuter’s is trying to get fired, aren’t they? This is just too fucking cool to be true. :eek: It’s also being reported in the [_New York Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/24/science/24cnd-dino.html?hp&ex=1111726800&en=7b508693c782d407&ei=5094&partner=homepage) (free subscription required); there’s going to be a paper published in _Science_ tomorrow, which is a very respectable peer-reviewed journal. Although it is almost incredible (in the original sense of the word) ain’t it? I certainly hope no one is pulling some stupid cold fusion stunt with this. Even without any whacky “Jurassic Park” scenarios, the possibility that we could get some hard evidence (or soft evidence, rather) about stuff like the warm-blooded/cold-blooded question is mind-blowing. And it’s a _T. rex_! _Coooool._ ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/12 "2005-03-24T22:02:53Z")
Water is supposed to be able to percolate THROUGH sandstone though, right? How the HELL does something like this happen? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/13 "2005-03-24T22:05:08Z")
Didn’t see **MEB** ’s post as I was typing. Cool. I will look for the _Science_ article. Thanks for the heads up. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/14 "2005-03-24T22:06:05Z")
Another link. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4379577.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4379577.stm) Hey, I hope the people at “Science” magazine can guess that they might be selling rather mroe of the next issue than they normally do.🙂 This sounds so fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/15 "2005-03-24T22:15:32Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > Even without any whacky “Jurassic Park” scenarios, the possibility that we could get some hard evidence (or soft evidence, rather) about stuff like the warm-blooded/cold-blooded question is mind-blowing. > > And it’s a _T. rex_! > > _Coooool._ No kidding. And imagine if they could get some actual genetic material out of there? Yeah, screw the Jurassic Park scenarios, they could compare it to birds and reptiles and see if the hypotheses hold up. Sure a sample of one individual is a problem, but it could at least be instructive. What a time to be alive. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/16 "2005-03-24T22:35:18Z")
> [@Khan](#): > > What a time to be alive. Got that right! Seeing planets around another star, finding dino meat, private enterprise planning on Moon missions… That’s wild, whacky stuff. I’m glad I waited to be born. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/17 "2005-03-24T22:35:58Z")
If real, this is _ **way past cool** _! 🙂🆒🙂🆒🙂 But…remember Piltdown Man? Jokers & frauds abound in the history of Science. Somebody may be diddlin’ the World, folks. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/18 "2005-03-24T23:06:27Z")
I really, really, really hope we aren’t being put on. This is just way too freakin’ awesome, and I mean that word in its intended fashion, not as part of my SoCal vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/19 "2005-03-24T23:18:37Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > Got that right! > > Seeing planets around another star, finding dino meat, private enterprise planning on Moon missions… That’s wild, whacky stuff. I don’t want to hijack, but did you see that article in the Times yesterday about how they’ve discovered that _Arabidopsis_ somehow can UNDO inherited mutations? That’s even wilder, if you ask me. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089/20 "2005-03-24T23:40:07Z")
Heard this on NPR this evening at work and it completely made my day. Would’ve done my happy geek dance, but again I was at work. Jack Horner thinks that it may be because of the density of the bones. I thought of the young earth people too when I first heard this, but for right now who friggin’ cares. I’m going to enjoy this for as long as I can. 😃😃😃😃😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/296089.md?page=2)