News Paleontology

Soft tissue from a dino fossil

Hadrosaur remains include fragments of several proteins, tests suggest

By Sid Perkins

- More than 2 years ago

As unlikely as it seems, the fossilized remains of an 80-million-year-old dinosaur can still contain bits of soft tissue and fragments of proteins.

THE SOFTER SIDE OF DINOS Researchers recovered 80-million-year-old dinosaur soft tissue that resembles collagen and contains what appears to be an osteocyte (arrow) by demineralizing the fossilized leg bone of a hadrosaur.