Despite decades of effort, scientists have never recovered dinosaur DNA. Most paleontology research today still focuses on searching for traces of original organic material in fossils, but DNA has not survived the passage of time.
Much of what we understand about dinosaurs comes from fossilized bones and teeth. These durable remains preserve well, but they offer only limited insight into how these animals actually lived.
Soft tissues, on the other hand, can reveal far more. These rare fossilized materials include muscles and ligaments, pigments or even skin (like scales or feathers). They provide important clues about appearance, movement, and behavior.
Another type of soft tissue sometimes preserved inside bones is blood vessels. My research team and I identified preserved blood vessels in a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil, and our findings were recently published in Scientific Reports.
A Discovery That Began With Physics
