====== Genetic Material from T-Rex Decoded -- April 14, 2007 ======
+
====== Genetic Material from T-Rex Decoded ======
+
+
<wrap lo>Saturday April 14, 2007</wrap>
Until recently, it was thought that the preservation of protein did not extend beyond a million years or so. However, protein sequences have now been recovered from the fossilized bones of a 68-million year old Tyrannosaurus Rex. [[http://www.meas.ncsu.edu/faculty/schweitzer/schweitzer.htm|Mary H. Schweitzer]], of North Carolina State University, was able to recover soft tissue from a T-Rex bone found in Montana in 2003. That tissue was then analyzed by a team of researchers led by John M. Asara of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. What they found was collagen, a type of fibrous connective tissue that is a major component of bone. The closest match in creatures alive today is collagen from chicken bones, which lends support to the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs, effectively transforming it from a hypothesis to a theory.
Until recently, it was thought that the preservation of protein did not extend beyond a million years or so. However, protein sequences have now been recovered from the fossilized bones of a 68-million year old Tyrannosaurus Rex. [[http://www.meas.ncsu.edu/faculty/schweitzer/schweitzer.htm|Mary H. Schweitzer]], of North Carolina State University, was able to recover soft tissue from a T-Rex bone found in Montana in 2003. That tissue was then analyzed by a team of researchers led by John M. Asara of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. What they found was collagen, a type of fibrous connective tissue that is a major component of bone. The closest match in creatures alive today is collagen from chicken bones, which lends support to the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs, effectively transforming it from a hypothesis to a theory.