We’re Hoping Our Billionaire Overlords Took Away the Right Lessons from “Jurassic Park,” Because Scientists Just Found Dinosaur Blood

Scientists have discovered a trace amount of red blood cells in the bones of a dinosaur that perished 115 million years ago, a "world first" finding reported in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Lead author Kliti Grice of Curtin University in Western Australia explained that the researchers observed microscopic structures that appeared to be red blood cells within vascular canals in the hind leg bones of a carnivorous dinosaur called an Aratasaurus.

This Aratasaurus once roamed what is now northeastern Brazil, having been unearthed from a mine in 2008 and housed at the National Museum in Brazil ever since.

The researchers employed an electron microscope to examine the vascular canals, where they identified structures resembling red blood cells. Chemical tests on the area revealed traces of heme, the iron-containing organic molecule that forms the protein hemoglobin and facilitates oxygen delivery throughout the body. The researchers emphasized that they did not uncover a "vial of dinosaur blood," but rather a "mineral and molecular echo of ancient biology," which is scientifically much more intriguing.

Grice clarified that the findings do not suggest the potential for ancient monstrous carnivores to be resurrected. Instead, the research aims to determine how much genuine molecular information deep time can preserve.

While the evidence uncovered is considered "unequivocal" by the research team, the findings have already sparked controversy. Notably, biologist Mary Schweitzer, who previously discovered blood vessels and soft tissues in dinosaur fossils, expressed skepticism, stating that the discovered structures are concave and lack the dome-like protrusions characteristic of red blood cells.