Dinosaur DNA discovered in 75-million year old preserved fossils

Paleontologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and North Carolina University have discovered fragments of a preserved 75-million year old dinosaur fossils that still contain traces of  dino DNA.

The dinosaur, a Hypacrosaurus, was unearthed from the 'Two Medicine Formation' of Montana in the US. The duck-billed herbivore lived during the Cretaceous period and was a 'nestling', meaning it was still very young when it died.

The fragments contain preserved organic material, such as, cartilage cells, proteins, chromosomes, and DNA. The last one surprised scientists as modern-day thinking suggests that DNA will only survive for about a million years.

'These new exciting results add to growing evidence that cells and some of their biomolecules can persist in deep-time,' said paleontologist Alida Bailleul of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He also added, "They suggest DNA can be preserved for tens of millions of years and we hope that this study will encourage scientists working on ancient DNA to push current limits and to use the new methodology in order to reveal all the unknown molecular secrets that ancient tissues have".