Red blood cells found in a 115 million-year-old dinosaur fossil from Brazil are the oldest chemical evidence of blood-related material in a dinosaur fossil, a new study claims.
However, not everyone agrees with the research team's conclusions, with some experts saying the shape doesn't match those of reptilian red blood cells.
In the new research, published Monday (Nov. 2) in the journal PNAS, the scientists said they identified microscopic structures resembling red blood cells alongside chemical signatures of heme, the oxygen-carrying component of hemoglobin.
The new findings come from limb bones of a roughly 10-foot-long (3 meters) dinosaur called Aratasaurus museunacionali. While previous research has detected blood in dinosaur fossils, this is the first study to use chemical processes to identify heme-based signatures in dinosaur bones.
"Traditionally, fossil...
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