Dinosaur blood found in fossils for the first time

An international team of paleontologists confirmed the presence of intact biomolecules and mineralized red blood cells inside fossils of a 115-million-year-old dinosaur, specifically heme compounds in the bones of a juvenile Aratasaurus from Early Cretaceous Brazil. The discovery, published in PNAS, challenges the assumption that such delicate biomolecules cannot survive deep time.

The findings are from one specimen and fossil type. Additional research is needed to understand how common this preservation is across different dinosaur species and environments.