By Katherine MM Bober
January 1st, 2022
Original Science Journal Article

It’s quiet, at first.  You can’t see what has his attention, but given what you both came to see, you can make an educated guess.  His face is all astonishment, and the sight he sees is enough to make him stand and remove his sunglasses for a clearer look.  Then, you can hear the creaking wood of large trees making way for something the world has not seen in tens of millions of years.  The other paleontologist babbles away in the front seat, talking about the extinct veriforman (a type of plant similar in appearance to elephant ears) when he turns her head to see the amazing sight.  We are more than ready to see it for ourselves, and so the camera turns to the Brachiosaurus grazing, as though it weren’t more out of time and place than a Victorian gentleman at a rave.

 

It’s hard not to get sucked into the majesty and awe that the mere idea of “Jurassic Park” presents.  It came at a time in our history when researchers made strides in learning more about the nature of amber, mosquitos, and dinosaur blood, and the hope to renew what had been lost was high.  If we could return the dinosaurs back to our world as flesh and blood, what couldn’t we do?  Of course, with additional research came the reality that we may not be able to pursue the path of genetic cloning - at least, for the long-dead dinosaurs.  Still, there are exciting discoveries to be made and hope springs eternal, as scientists such as Dr. Mary Schweitzer showed possible connective tissue and heme preserved within dinosaur bones back in 2007.  More recently, a team of paleontologists investigated claims of possible blood cells preserved within dinosaur bones, and they discovered that these spherical structures may actually be something else.

 

The team in question investigated samples of bones from a single Beipiaosaurus inexpectus, which was a type of therizinosauroid theropod.  What this means is that the dinosaur in question typically walked on its two hind legs with three toes on each foot and typically had hollow bones, a wide torso, a long neck, and elongated forelimbs that could reach into trees for mealtimes.  The particular specimen used for the study was found within the Jehol Lagerstätte in Sihetun - a Liaoning village located slightly north and east of Beijing in China.  A Lagerstätte is a fossil site which demonstrates exquisitely preserved fossils - the fossils can even include soft tissues, such as feathers.  The Jehol Lagerstätte is from the Early Cretaceous and is terrestrial in nature, which means you will not see deep-sea creatures buried with the Beipiaosaurus inexpectus.  However, the B. inexpectus was not the only organism examined from this site - the team also pulled petrified wood from the area surrounding the Beipiaosaurus.  This would prove to be instrumental in solving the mystery of the spherules.

 

By using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (or EDS), the team realized that the areas in the Beipiaosaurus bones with the most red spherical objects were high in aluminum and silicon, which are typically associated with clay minerals.  By closely examining the thin sections of the petrified wood, they were able to see round structures similar to the spherules within the Beipiaosaurus bones. The team determined that the bones were significantly altered due to the process of fossilization, thanks to the Raman spectroscopic analysis which showed high concentrations of chlorine and fluorine.  Due to all of these observations, the team has concluded that, at least in the case of this dinosaur, the red spherules appear to be remnants of the physical and chemical processes which created the rock, otherwise known as diagenesis, in the form of kaolinite clay.

 

While these clay spheres may not have been red blood cells, this still provides useful information which can help us understand more about taphonomy, or fossilization, as well as the minute yet critical fluid and biological interactions which occur after an organism takes one more fateful fall to the ground.  This can lead researchers to either revisit previous studies and review their work, or can lead future researchers onward in their quest to help the rest of us understand more about the dinosaurs with which we’re obsessed. For now, this study teaches us how “all that glitters is not gold.”