T. rex "tissue" may just be bacterial scum

sea-maid submitted, created time 5 months 1 week (www.newscientist.com)

When palaeontologists reported that they had recovered soft tissue from a 65-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex fossil, the excitement was palpable.

Without going all Jurassic Park, the discovery seemed to open the door to studying biomolecules from dinosaurs and other long-extinct creatures.

It seems, however, that no one will be cooking up a new zoo exhibit from this one. The "tissue" appears to have been layers of biofilms laid down by bacteria and not the skin and flesh of the ancient beastie

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Dinosaurs are shown to be related to birds, not reptiles

Darkfrog submitted, created time 8 months 1 week (www.nytimes.com)

Genetic testing reveals a connection between the Tyrannosaurus rex and living birds such as ostriches and chickens and NOT other reptiles, such as alligators, something that has long been suspected from skeletal data.

It doesn't come as a shocker at this point, but it's nice to know.

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