Current Research: Search for Heme in T.rex bone

[Rich Travsky <RTRAVSKY@UWYO.EDU>]

The following is a brief account of a talk recently given here
at the University of Wyoming campus by Mary Schweitzer. Ms.
Schweitzer is a PhD candidate in molecular paleontology at 
Montana State University and is a student of Jack Horner. The
talk was in large degree her dissertation.  What I write below
is from our newspaper's account. I wanted to take notes during
the talk but the lights were turned out for slides and I 
couldn't see a thing.

Her research (largely self funded) is close to demonstrating
the presence of actual blood cells from a 70 million year old 
T. rex. This rex was one found in 1990 in central eastern
Montana.

First, structures in the rex bone likely to exhibit evidence of
heme were located. Cross sections showed micro structures strongly
reminiscent of blood producing areas.

Then a rather impressive array of tests were
applied. As I mentioned earlier, the lights were out, so I didn't
write down the long list of tests; there were a lot of them.
One the paper mentioned (and one I do recall graphs of) was of
a determination of bone elements. The graphs showed concentrations
of minerals (calcium, phosphorous, iron) and were compared with
findings from a bird (an ostrich I believe it was).

The presumed heme like substance showed iron. Much care was given 
to eliminating possible sources of iron intrusion; it would appear
the iron found did not come from outside sources. 

Other tests revealed the presence of collagen like material.

Amino acids found in the bone appear to ancient and not recent
(based on the ratio od dextro / laevo forms). Much care was
taken during the testing to avoid contamination with recent
materials (as she said, "I did not bleed on this dinosaur").

Net conclusion: We may have struct heme.

Ms. Schweitzer was at the University of Wyoming to perform
some more tests with Dr. Keith Carron of the University's
Chemistry department. She was "arm-twisted" in giving an 
impromptu talk by Brent Breihaupt, curator of the University's
Geological Museum.
 
My profuse apologies for the disjointed nature of this post
and the lack of more concrete details. Our local newspaper
is also not known for its science reporting (the football
team, well, that's another story). Maybe next time I'll bring
a tape recorder...

+---------+    Richard Travsky   RTRAVSKY @ UWYO . EDU
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