Protein in Dinosaur Rib Is 195 Million Years Old

We can now find chemical signatures in a fossil without destroying it.

By Gemma Tarlach
Jan 24, 2018 6:00 AMNov 12, 2019 6:41 AM
DSC-B0218_04.jpg
Hematite (shown as dark spots) sealed blood vessels in the fossil, helping preserve the collagen. | Robert Reisz

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Researchers in Taiwan used an innovative technique to find the protein collagen in a dinosaur rib that’s a whopping 195 million years old. Other researchers had previously identified proteins in fossils less than half as old, but those efforts required destroying part of the fossil itself.

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