I hate you, Jack Horner, because you are a shitty scientist.

PLEASE STOP.

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Scientists recover T. rex soft tissue
70-million-year-old fossil yields preserved blood vessels
Reuters
Updated: 2:05 p.m. ET March 24, 2005WASHINGTON - A 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex fossil dug out of a hunk of sandstone has yielded soft tissue, including blood vessels and perhaps even whole cells, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.Paleontologists forced to break the creature’s massive thighbone to get it on a helicopter found not a solid piece of fossilized bone, but instead something looking a bit less like a rock.When they got it into a lab and chemically removed the hard minerals, they found what looked like blood vessels, bone cells and perhaps even blood cells.”They are transparent, they are flexible,” said Mary Higby Schweitzer of North Carolina State University and Montana State University, who conducted the study.

She said the vessels were flexible and in some cases their contents could be squeezed out.

“The microstructures that look like cells are preserved in every way,” added Schweitzer, whose findings were published in the journal Science.

“Preservation of this extent, where you still have this flexibility and transparency, has never been seen in a dinosaur before.” Feathers, hair and fossilized egg contents yes, but not truly soft tissue.

Studying the soft tissues may help answer many questions about dinosaurs. Were they cold-blooded like reptiles, warm-blooded like mammals, or somewhere in-between? How are they related to living animals?

“If we can isolate certain proteins, then perhaps we can address the issue of the physiology of the dinosaur,” Schweitzer said.

Of course, the big question is whether it will be possible to see dinosaur DNA. “We don’t know yet. We are doing a lot in the lab now that looks promising,” Schweitzer said.

To make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing, Schweitzer, a biologist by training, compared the Tyrannosaur samples with bone taken from a dead ostrich. She chose an ostrich because birds are thought to be the closest living relatives of dinosaurs and ostriches are big birds.

Both the dinosaur and ostrich blood vessels contained small, reddish brown dots that could be the nuclei of the endothelial cells that line blood vessels.

Taking the minerals out of both ostrich bone and the Tyrannosaur bone a simple experiment that can be duplicated by anyone using a chicken bone, for example, and vinegar yielded flexible fibers. Microscopic examination showed what look like bone cells called osteocytes in both.

The finding certainly shows fossilization does not proceed as science had assumed, Schweitzer said. Since the discovery, she has found similar samples of soft tissue in two other Tyrannosaur fossils and a hadrosaur.

The fossil was dug up out of Montana’s Hell Creek Formation, a rich source of fossils.

Paleontologist Jack Horner said it was encased in 1,000 cubic yards (metres) of sandstone. “It’s a fantastic specimen,” he told the briefing.

“The specimen was very far away from road, (so) everything had to be done with a helicopter.” The field team used standard procedure as they excavated the bones, wrapping them in plaster jackets before transporting them..

This particular dinosaur fossil was too big to lift and they reluctantly cracked a thighbone.

Usually paleontologists put preservatives on fossils right away, but Schweitzer has been trying to find soft tissue in dinosaur fossils, so this one was left alone.

Horner said he hoped museums around the world would start cracking open bones and looking for soft tissue in their fossils.

“Dinosaurs are relatively rare and we certainly think of Tyrannosaurus rex as being really rare although it really isn’t so people tend not to want to cut holes into the bone or cut them in half,” he said.

“But to study the cellular and molecular structures of these things you have to do that.” The “good stuff,” he said, is on the inside.
Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7285683/

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Jack Horner is a lousy scientist. He’s a big fan of annoucing some great discovery “he” has made, except that they rarely hold up. For instance, about five years ago, Horner was all over the news - and especially Young Earth websites - when he found a “heart” in the ribcage of a dinosaur. Wowee zowee! Fossilized soft tissue! But wait, said the scientific community. Soft tissue doesn’t really fossilize that way, and a heart certainly would not stick around long enough.

And then, Horner had the balls to come out (and this really drove the fundies wild) and say that not only did they find a heart, but they had LIQUID BLOOD.

Let me state that again, just in case you missed it: He claimed to have found liquid dinosaur blood. He was even quoted as saying that this could be some sort of proof that the whole geologic timetable was wrong and that dinosaurs lived only a few thousand years ago.

Uh. Not even close. “Liquid” blood would not survive that long. Ever.

Horner is basically a showboater. Before his highly scientifical papers make it into journals, he likes to scream out “LOOK WHAT I FOUND! THIS TOTALLY REVOLUTIONIZES EVERYTHING!” The public gets all excited. Then the real scientists get to look at his research and basically tell him that he’s a retarded asshole and he really should just knock it off. But the public never hears about that part, since the media really doesn’t cover it with the sensationalism of the initial “finding.” Everyone just goes on assuming that Horner is some awesome paleontologist.

Kinda like how few people know that the famous Tyrannosaur “Sue” was confiscated in an FBI raid on its legitimate owner. And then auctioned off the the highest bidder. Thanks a lot, news people, for forgetting to mention that part.

Remember that heart? Horner’s team provided photos, X-rays, and CAT scans, all purporting to show ventricles and what not. When someone legit actually took the time to look at the “heart,” they found that it was an iron concretion. This amazing discovery was nothing more that some sand with some concentrated iron.

Reading through the article again, you’ll see that this Schweitzer has found “several more” of these samples. So, you’re telling me, that in over 200 years of fossil collecting, this lady is the first one to find this soft tissue - and on top of that - has found SEVERAL instances? Not a chance.

It all boils down to a long string of terrible practices and dishonest science. This all serves to damage the credibility of the field as a whole. We’re fighting a battle against creationism myths in our schools, in our IMAX theaters, and in our very government, and jerkofss like Horner just keep chipping away at the wall of real science.

One Response to “I don’t mind worry following me like a dinosaur”

1. Blogging Is For Jerks » Blog Archive » I ride the fader and I ride it low, on April 13th, 2007 at 11:28 pm, said:
   

   […] And now, dinosaurs! Remember this article (mostly me talking about how I hate Jack Horner)? Here’s a follow up: T. rex thigh reveals chicken family ties POSTED: 5:54 p.m. EDT, April 12, 2007 […]

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