Inside the Bones

  • By Peter Tyson
  • Posted 06.01.07
  • NOVA scienceNOW

In 2005, Mary Schweitzer and her team shocked the paleontological world when they reported, in the journal Science, that they had come upon soft tissue surviving deep within the fossilized thigh bone of a 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex. Similar discoveries followed. In this slide show, see what Schweitzer and her team brought to light from bones as old as 78 million years.

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See what Mary Schweitzer's team found within the primordial remains of everything from a mammoth to a Triceratops.

Credits

Images

(Mary Schweitzer, all microscopic images)
Courtesy Mary Schweitzer
(all animal silhouettes)
© NOVA/WGBH Educational Foundation

Related Links

  • T. Rex Blood?

    Preserved soft tissue, including possible blood vessels and red blood cells, are turning up in dinosaur fossils.

  • T. Rex Blood?: Expert Q&A

    Paleontologist Mary Schweitzer answers questions about the preservation of soft tissues in ancient fossils.

  • T. Rex

    An astonishing adolescent growth spurt accounts for T. rex's enormous size.

  • T. Rex: Expert Q&A

    Paleontologist Richard Kissel of Chicago's Field Museum answers questions about T. rex.

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