microraptorian Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I have read many of Dr. Schweitzer's papers and am wondering what the safest methods to extract soft tissue from dinosaur bones are. I cannot find any information on this topic so I figured I would start here. By soft tissue I mean apparent original biological molecules such as collagen, red blood cells, etc.. Thanks for any help on this topic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Welcome to TFF! I have never heard of removing soft tissue from a fossil. The closest I can come up with is making thin slice slide mounts. Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 There seem to be some papers out there, but many may be behind paywalls. Regards, 1 Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
microraptorian Posted February 24, 2017 Author Share Posted February 24, 2017 5 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said: There seem to be some papers out there, but many may be behind paywalls. Regards, Thank you so so so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Come to the 2017 Tate Conference and ask Mary in person. She is our Keynote Speaker this year. I will be posting more about this shortly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
microraptorian Posted February 24, 2017 Author Share Posted February 24, 2017 41 minutes ago, jpc said: Come to the 2017 Tate Conference and ask Mary in person. She is our Keynote Speaker this year. I will be posting more about this shortly. Too far, unfortunately, but I would quite appreciate any information you get on the subject from her. I await that post, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Oh, Jeez, now I am almost forced to post something after the conference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
microraptorian Posted February 24, 2017 Author Share Posted February 24, 2017 33 minutes ago, jpc said: Oh, Jeez, now I am almost forced to post something after the conference. You don't have to if you don't want to lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 11 minutes ago, microraptorian said: You don't have to if you don't want to lol. but I might... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohiofossilhunter Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 I have actually done some work with this as a side project while at college. Typically the technique uses either a solution of EDTA or HCl depending on the bone's preservation type. I had some success extracting microstructures using a 2.0 mol solution of HCl with daily changes of solution until there started to collect a silt on the bottom of the test tube. This silt typically contained many of the microstructures documented by Schweitzer. Both of the techniques can also work with modern and unfossilized bones. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 58 minutes ago, ohiofossilhunter said: I have actually done some work with this as a side project while at college. Typically the technique uses either a solution of EDTA or HCl depending on the bone's preservation type. I had some success extracting microstructures using a 2.0 mol solution of HCl with daily changes of solution until there started to collect a silt on the bottom of the test tube. This silt typically contained many of the microstructures documented by Schweitzer. Both of the techniques can also work with modern and unfossilized bones. cool... what sorts of microstructures? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohiofossilhunter Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 They are microstructures that morphologically have the appearance of blood vessels and osteocytes. They did take up some stains for organic tissue and were fairly elastic, but my project got sidelined for awhile so I have been unable to continue work to see if they are original organic structures. Schweitzer has confirmed at least some original organic material in the bones she has been working with, including some proteins. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
microraptorian Posted March 1, 2017 Author Share Posted March 1, 2017 On 2/26/2017 at 4:30 PM, ohiofossilhunter said: I have actually done some work with this as a side project while at college. Typically the technique uses either a solution of EDTA or HCl depending on the bone's preservation type. I had some success extracting microstructures using a 2.0 mol solution of HCl with daily changes of solution until there started to collect a silt on the bottom of the test tube. This silt typically contained many of the microstructures documented by Schweitzer. Both of the techniques can also work with modern and unfossilized bones. Where do you get the section of the bone you put in the acid from? Like do you just pick a random spot from a piece of bone you happen to have laying around and take it off, or is there a method to your madness? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohiofossilhunter Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 The best results came from the center of large fragments of dug bone, but we experimented with a variety of fragments with some even being float bone and nearly every sample produced microstructures. The dug unweathered bones produced much larger microstructures. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossil_lover_2277 Posted September 29, 2021 Share Posted September 29, 2021 @ohiofossilhunter is spot on with everything said. In fact, many, many bones preserve these “soft tissues” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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