Scientists think they've found ancient remnants of dinosaur blood

Scientists have studied plenty of dinosaur bones, eggs and footprints. Now, some think they've found their strongest evidence yet of dinosaur blood. NPR Science LISTEN & FOLLOW NPR App Apple Podcasts Spotify Amazon Music iHeart Radio RSS link Science Scientists think they've found ancient remnants of dinosaur blood November 9, 20265:00 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By  Nathan Rott Scientists think they've found ancient remnants of dinosaur blood Listen · Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www. npr. org/player/embed/nx-s1-6026704/nx-s1-9997817" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Scientists have studied plenty of dinosaur bones, eggs and footprints. Now, some think they've found their strongest evidence yet of dinosaur blood. Transcript SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST: From dinosaur bones to dinosaur teeth, scientists have found plenty of evidence of Earth's long-extinct inhabitants. Now, some scientists think they've unearthed something that's never been definitively found before - dinosaur blood. NATE ROTT, BYLINE: To be clear right from the get-go, we're not talking about a vial of dinosaur blood. So put those "Jurassic Park" dreams to bed. The sample in question is, well... KLITI GRICE: Yeah, it just looks like a bunch of old bones. ROTT: Because that's what it is, says Kliti Grice. GRICE: It's 115 million years old, but it has extraordinary preservation. ROTT: Which is why it was sent to her. Grice is an organic geochemist at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, who specializes in looking for molecules in ancient fossils. And she says when she looked closely at the bone, like really closely with a very powerful microscope... GRICE: It was actually remarkable. ROTT: She could see vascular canals where blood vessels would have run through the bone. GRICE: And within the vascular canals, you can see these red blood cell-like structures. ROTT: Like being the key word. They resembled red blood cells or what the fossilized/mineralized versions of them might be, but that doesn't mean that's what they are. So Grice did a bunch of fancy chemistry to test them further. GRICE: This sample went through about 30 different analytical techniques, I would say. ROTT: And perhaps most compellingly, they found evidence of a molecule called heme. GRICE: Heme is part of hemoglobin, which is the iron-containing molecule that helps to transport oxygen around the body. ROTT: So biologically, yeah, it's pretty important. Heme is also what gives blood its red coloring.