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The discovery of traces of flesh in a 66-million-year old Tyrannosaurus rex bone ties the King of the Dinosaurs to modern-day species and, scientists say, heralds a "milestone" shift in paleontology.
"Based on the small sample we've recovered, chickens may be the closest relatives (to T. rex)," says geneticist John Asara of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, co-leader of a team reporting the discovery of faint traces of chicken-like bone lining preserved inside a dinosaur drumstick.
In studies reported in the journal Science, Asara and colleagues conclude that seven traces of proteins detected in purified T. rex bone most closely match those reported in chickens, followed by frogs and newts.
The discovery of traces of flesh in a 66-million-year old Tyrannosaurus rex bone ties the King of the Dinosaurs to modern-day species and, scientists say, heralds a "milestone" shift in paleontology.
"Based on the small sample we've recovered, chickens may be the closest relatives (to T. rex)," says geneticist John Asara of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, co-leader of a team reporting the discovery of faint traces of chicken-like bone lining preserved inside a dinosaur drumstick.
In studies reported in the journal Science, Asara and colleagues conclude that seven traces of proteins detected in purified T. rex bone most closely match those reported in chickens, followed by frogs and newts.
