{"id":951035,"date":"2026-11-03T12:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T12:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951035\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T12:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T12:02:10","slug":"curtin-university-study-discovers-115-million-year-old-dinosaur-red-blood-cells-and-heme-biomolecules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951035\/","title":{"rendered":"Curtin University study discovers 115-million-year-old dinosaur red blood cells and heme biomolecules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.openaccessgovernment.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/iStock-2184122555.jpg\" data-caption=\"image: \u00a9blackdovfx | iStock \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"391\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/iStock-2184122555-696x391.jpg\"   alt=\"DNA overlaid by an entire galaxy.\" title=\"DNA overlaid by an entire galaxy.\"\/><\/a>image: \u00a9blackdovfx | iStock<br \/>\n            An international research team led by Curtin University has confirmed the discovery of 115-million-year-old fossilised red blood cells and heme biomolecules in a Brazilian theropod, proving that delicate organic structures can survive across deep geological time<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2614248123\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Published in the\u00a0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS),<\/a> the study presents the first unambiguous chemical proof of haemoglobin-derived heme biomolecules inside mineralised fossil cells, fundamentally reshaping scientific models of molecular longevity and deep-time fossil preservation.<\/p>\n<p>Biochemical preservation and mineralisation mechanics<\/p>\n<p>While previous paleontological studies have reported potential cell-like structures in ancient bones, this study provides definitive chemical verification of biological blood remains preserved within vascular canals:<\/p>\n<p>Heme identification<\/p>\n<p>Mass spectrometry and geochemical analysis identified intact heme signatures\u2014the iron-bearing, oxygen-transporting cofactor of haemoglobin\u2014confirming the biological origin of the preserved cellular structures.<\/p>\n<p>Hausmannite encapsulation<\/p>\n<p>The red blood cells were mineralised with hausmannite (a manganese oxide mineral), which acted as a crystalline micro-capsule that shielded cellular membranes and collagen amino acids from thermal and chemical degradation over 115 million years.<\/p>\n<p>Taphonomic environment<\/p>\n<p>Researchers determined that the exceptional preservation occurred due to rapid post-mortem burial in a low-oxygen, microbially rich aquatic environment in present-day northeastern Brazil.<\/p>\n<p>Implications for molecular palaeontology and astrobiology<\/p>\n<p>The verification of 115-million-year-old organic biomolecules opens new research avenues across multiple scientific disciplines:<\/p>\n<p>Evolutionary physiology:<\/p>\n<p>Direct chemical access to ancient blood cells allows scientists to investigate metabolic rates, thermoregulation, and cardiovascular evolution in non-avian dinosaurs.<\/p>\n<p>Rewriting molecular limits:<\/p>\n<p>The findings overturn long-held assumptions that complex biological proteins and pigments strictly degrade within a few hundred thousand to a few million years.<\/p>\n<p>Astrobiological applications:<\/p>\n<p>Understanding how hausmannite encapsulation preserves cellular structures under extreme conditions offers new target signatures for detecting potential extinct microbial biosignatures on Mars and other planetary bodies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"image: \u00a9blackdovfx | iStock An international research team led by Curtin University has confirmed the discovery of 115-million-year-old&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,174085,13294,128],"class_list":["post-951035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-historical-studies","tag-research-and-innovation","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}