据5月1日的《科学》杂志报道说，科学家们在一个有着8000万年历史的鸭嘴龙化石中探测到了血管和其它的结缔组织。
Mary Schweitzer及其同僚从加拿大短冠龙Brachylophosaurus canadensis (标本 MOR 2598)的后肢中发现了一条单一的股骨。 他们没有在野外对该化石进行挖掘，而是对其及其外包裹的一层厚厚的沙石层进行了封存，然后将其转移到实验室中以做进一步的发掘，并防止发生标本的污染。 这些标本还被送往多个实验室中进行独立的分析。
研究人员应用扫描电子显微镜来检查该组织的外观和结构，他们还开展了质谱仪和抗体结合实验来辨识其组织蛋白。 质谱分析结果表明，MOR 2598含有胶原蛋白，其氨基酸序列与鸟类胶原蛋白的氨基酸序列非常相似，这对在恐龙与鸟类之间存在着密切的进化上的相互关系提供了进一步的支持。
该鸭嘴龙化石比一个几年前发现的霸王龙（T. rex）化石（请详Science 25 March 2005 307: 1952-1955）要早1300万年。该霸王龙化石的发现有着类似的争议。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Science 1 May 2009: DOI: 10.1126/science.1165069
Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the Campanian Hadrosaur B. canadensis
Mary H. Schweitzer,1,2,* Wenxia Zheng,1 Chris L. Organ,3 Recep Avci,4 Zhiyong Suo,4 Lisa M. Freimark,5 Valerie S. Lebleu,6,7 Michael B. Duncan,6,7 Matthew G. Vander Heiden,8 John M. Neveu,9 William S. Lane,9 John S. Cottrell,10 John R. Horner,11 Lewis C. Cantley,5,12 Raghu Kalluri,6,7,13 John M. Asara5,14,*
Molecular preservation in non-avian dinosaurs is controversial. We present multiple lines of evidence that endogenous proteinaceous material is preserved in bone fragments and soft tissues from an 80-million-year-old Campanian hadrosaur, Brachylophosaurus canadensis [Museum of the Rockies (MOR) 2598]. Microstructural and immunological data are consistent with preservation of multiple bone matrix and vessel proteins, and phylogenetic analyses of Brachylophosaurus collagen sequenced by mass spectrometry robustly support the bird-dinosaur clade, consistent with an endogenous source for these collagen peptides. These data complement earlier results from Tyrannosaurus rex (MOR 1125) and confirm that molecular preservation in Cretaceous dinosaurs is not a unique event.
1 North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
2 North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC 27601, USA.
3 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
4 Imaging and Chemical Analysis Laboratory, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.
5 Division of Signal Transduction, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
6 Division of Matrix Biology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
7 Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
8 Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
9 Faculty of Arts and Sciences Center for Systems Biology, Harvard Univeristy, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
10 Matrix Science Ltd., 64 Baker Street, London, W1U 7GB, UK.
11 Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.
12 Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
13 Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
14 Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
