Re: blood samples?

[Phillip Bigelow <n8010095@henson.cc.wwu.edu>]

You bet Schweitzer should be cautious!  The material that I have personally
seen come out of the Hell Creek Fm. has a lot of encrusting hematite.  I 
have often seen adjacent bones in channel facies; one bone with not a speck
of iron stain, and another bone 1 meter away with a half inch of the stuff on
it.  Even with the rigorous preliminary work that that team did to determine 
that the bone on the T. rex wasn't _replaced_, it is another matter to
say that the bones don't have a precipitate coating.  The elemental iron
may be from hematite.  I wonder if a study of the isotopic ratios could
illiminate the hematite possibility?
                           <pb>
p.s.  I saw the S.E.M. photomicrograph of the T. rex "blood cell" on, of 
      places, the "Today" show, during the week of the opening of 
      "Jurassic Park".  No, I wouldn't say that MOR is always cautious.
      That reminds me of the Chatterjee/ New York Times media event, in
      which he announced the _Protoavis_ discovery.