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By Wendy Hansen, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 31, 2008
Soft, organic material discovered inside a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil that scientists believed was 70-million-year-old dinosaur tissue may have been nothing more than ordinary slime, scientists said in a study published Wednesday.

Researchers reported in the online journal PLoS ONE that bacterial colonies infiltrating tiny cavities in the bones long after the dinosaurs died may have naturally molded into shapes resembling the tissues they replaced.

Carbon dating performed on one sample showed that the tissue-like material was modern, circa 1960.

After further examination with light and electron microscopy, researchers concluded that the substances were most likely remnants of biofilms, or layers of bacterial cells and the sticky molecules they secrete.

The finding sparked a strong response from the researchers who originally said they had found ancient dinosaur tissue.

Mary H. Schweitzer, the biologist from North Carolina State University who found the original material, said in a statement that errors in the current study "seem to underlie a fundamental misunderstanding of our work, our data and our interpretations."

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