They have discovered some preserved tissue inside the femur of a female Tyrannosaurus Rex.
An analysis of tissue found inside the femur suggests a high likelihood that the remains belong to a female T-Rex ready to lay eggs, said Mary Schweitzer, a paleontologist with the University of North Carolina, writing in the June 3 edition of the journal.
The tissue -- the first ever discovered inside a dinosaur fossil -- is very similar to medullar tissue found inside the bones of female ratite birds, such as ostriches and emus, that are about to lay eggs, she said.
This tissue is rich in calcium, providing minerals for the egg shell -- minerals that would otherwise be drawn from the bird's other bones to the point of weakening them.
"In addition to demonstrating gender, it also links the reproductive physiology of dinosaurs to birds very closely," said Schweitzer. "It indicates that dinosaurs produced and shelled their eggs much more like modern birds than like modern crocodiles," she added.
This discovery was based on well-preserved tissue found inside Tyrannosaurus rex femur discovered in an area of Montana, in the central-northern United States, known as Hell Creek Formation, a famous dinosaur fossil site.
The fossil was broken when it was removed from the site, allowing researchers a clear view of its interior.
In March the team claimed to have discovered what appeared to be cells and blood vessels in the same fossils, which belong to a Tyrannosaurus known as MOR 1125, estimated at around 18 years old at death. The finding was reported in March by Science.
Female, egg-laying Chickenosaur Rex. Ya.
Phoenix Mars
NASA is hoping to launch a craft to land on the polar region of mars to check for water, scoop up soil samples and so on.
The $386 million Phoenix Mars is scheduled to touch down in the Martian arctic in May 2008. The stationary probe will use its robotic arm to dig into the icy terrain and scoop up soil samples to analyze. In 2002, the Mars Odyssey orbiter spotted evidence of ice-rich soil near the arctic surface.
Scientists hope the Phoenix mission will yield clues to the geologic history of water on the Red Planet and determine whether microbes existed in the ice.
Phoenix will be the first mission of the Mars Scout program, a renewed, low-cost effort to study the Red Planet. During the next two years, scientists will test the spacecraft and payload as well as choose a landing site in the northern latitudes based on information gathered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that will launch in August.
"The Phoenix mission explores new territory in the northern plains of Mars analogous to the permafrost regions on Earth," principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, said in a statement.
More news to come on this project.
Look Who truned 50
The Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan turned 50.
Russia is providing the engineers and Kazakhstan the finances for the Baiterek, which is planned for its first lift-off in 2008 and will carry civilian payloads, especially commercial satellites. The two presidents were to lay the first stone in foundations for a new launch pad that will serve the rocket.
Russian specialists say the Baiterek will be modelled on the new Angara military rocket, which is due for launching in 2008 from Plesetsk, a cosmodrome in northwest Russia.
Proton, one of the workhorses of the Russian space industry and a key supply vehicle to the International Space Station following the grounding of all US space shuttles, uses a toxic fuel, but the Baiterek and Angara will run on cleaner liquid oxygen and kerosene.
More power to the Russian space programme. :)
- Art Neuro
- Art Neuro
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