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Scientists Extract Soft Tissue from 68-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur1 Bone
科学家从6千8百万年之久的恐龙骨中提取软组织
U.S. scientists have recovered soft tissue from the bones of a nearly 70-million-year-old dinosaur. If it proves to be original tissue not replaced by some other substance, it would be the first to show such material can last more than a few million years and could provide biological insights into the extinct animals.
When North Carolina State University biologist Mary Higby Schweitzer looked inside a thigh2 bone of a Tyrannosaurus rex excavated3 in the northern state of Montana recently, she was surprised by an unexpected find. Typically, only the hard parts of an animal, like the bones or shell, are preserved. But this dinosaur contained what appears to be well preserved soft tissue inside the bone where the marrow4 once was.
As Ms. Schweitzer reports in the journal Science, she isolated5 the tissue by dissolving the surrounding bone minerals in a weak acid. What remained appears to be blood vessels6 and cells still elastic7 after 68 million years.
Ms. Schweitzer: The thing that was so fascinating for us with this particular dinosaur was that they are transparent8, they are flexible. The vessels are such that we can actually manipulate them with our probe. The bone matrix itself, once we removed the minerals from it, is stretchy and flexible. And then, of course, the microstructures that look like cells are preserved in every way. The cellular9 extensions are flexible. And they move in solution just like cells preserved in modern bones.
For comparison, the researchers analyzed10 soft tissue from an ostrich11 leg bone because birds are widely believed to have evolved from dinosaurs12. The dinosaur vessels contained small, reddish-brown dots similar to the nuclei13 of cells lining14 ostrich blood vessels. The Tyrannosaurus rex bone also contained structures that looked virtually identical to ostrich bone cells.
There are few examples of prehistoric15 tissue that are not hard. Such soft material that is preserved is usually not more than a few million years old, such as insects trapped in amber16 or humans and mammoths in peat or ice. But Ms. Schweitzer says her discovery shows it is now possible to find soft tissue in animals many times older.
Ms. Schweitzer: This preservation18 to this extent, where you still have original flexibility19 and transparency has not been noted20 in dinosaurs before. So we're pretty excited about the find.
If the tissue consists of original material, experts say scientists might be able to extract new information about dinosaurs, especially if they can recover proteins and the genetic21 material DNA22.
A deputy editor at the journal Science is Robert Hanson.
Robert Hanson: That is why the discovery described here is so interesting. These findings thus help us understand preservation in the fossil record and ultimately this study may pave the way towards new insights into dinosaur physiology23 and biochemistry.
But appearances can be deceiving. As a result, the scientists are not claiming their finding is actual proof that the dinosaur tissue is in its native, pristine24 condition. Ms. Schweitzer is conducting laboratory tests to determine whether it is still made of the molecules26 that existed in the living animal, or a pliable27 non-organic compound that has taken their place over the ages.
Ms. Schweitzer: Through further chemical analysis we can learn things like, are their protein fragments preserved? If so, how is the protein the same or different from animals that are alive today? As far as DNA goes, we don't know yet. We're doing a lot of stuff in the lab that looks promising28 right now.
The North Carolina State University researcher is secretive about those studies, awaiting their final outcome and publication.
David McAlary, VOA news, Washington.
注释:
soft tissue 软组织
dinosaur [5dainEsC:] n. 恐龙
thigh [Wai] n. 大腿
Tyrannosaurus rex [tirAnE5sC:rEs,reks] n. 暴龙
marrow [5mArEu] n. 髓,骨髓
elastic [i5lAstik] adj. 弹性的
probe [prEub] n. 探针,探测器
microstructure [5maikrEu5strQktFE] n. 微观结构,显微结构
ostrich [5CstritF] n. 鸵鸟
amber [5AmbE] n. 琥珀
mammoth17 [5mAmEW] n. [古生]猛犸,毛象
peat [pi:t] n. 泥煤,泥炭块
biochemistry [5baiEu5kemistri] n. 生物化学
molecule25 [5mClikju:l] n. [化]分子,些微
pliable [5plaiEbl] adj. 柔软的,圆滑的,柔韧的
1 dinosaur | |
n.恐龙 | |
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2 thigh | |
n.大腿;股骨 | |
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3 excavated | |
v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 );开凿;挖出;发掘 | |
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4 marrow | |
n.骨髓;精华;活力 | |
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5 isolated | |
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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6 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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7 elastic | |
n.橡皮圈,松紧带;adj.有弹性的;灵活的 | |
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8 transparent | |
adj.明显的,无疑的;透明的 | |
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9 cellular | |
adj.移动的;细胞的,由细胞组成的 | |
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10 analyzed | |
v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 );分解;解释;对…进行心理分析 | |
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11 ostrich | |
n.鸵鸟 | |
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12 dinosaurs | |
n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 );守旧落伍的人,过时落后的东西 | |
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13 nuclei | |
n.核 | |
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14 lining | |
n.衬里,衬料 | |
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15 prehistoric | |
adj.(有记载的)历史以前的,史前的,古老的 | |
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16 amber | |
n.琥珀;琥珀色;adj.琥珀制的 | |
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17 mammoth | |
n.长毛象;adj.长毛象似的,巨大的 | |
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18 preservation | |
n.保护,维护,保存,保留,保持 | |
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19 flexibility | |
n.柔韧性,弹性,(光的)折射性,灵活性 | |
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20 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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21 genetic | |
adj.遗传的,遗传学的 | |
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22 DNA | |
(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸 | |
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23 physiology | |
n.生理学,生理机能 | |
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24 pristine | |
adj.原来的,古时的,原始的,纯净的,无垢的 | |
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25 molecule | |
n.分子,克分子 | |
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26 molecules | |
分子( molecule的名词复数 ) | |
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27 pliable | |
adj.易受影响的;易弯的;柔顺的,易驾驭的 | |
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28 promising | |
adj.有希望的,有前途的 | |
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