Materials found in the T.

rex’s leg bone were considered remains of blood vessels, red blood cells,
and collagen matrix. However, in the lecture, the professor state that all of the inferences are
skeptical.

First, in the reading passage, the breaking of the fossilized leg bone revealed many small
branching channels inside, which probably correspond to hollows in the bones where blood
vessels were once located. The exciting finding was the presence of a soft, flexible organic
substance inside the channels. This soft substance may very well represent the remains of the
actual blood vessels of T.rex. Anyway, in the listening, the professor points out that flexible and
soft substance might not necessarily be the remain of blood vessels. It is more likely to be that
after the death of the organism, bacteria colonized the hollows which were empty areas like the
channels. They might be some traces that left behind by the bacteria that lived inside the
hollows.

Second, according to the passage, microscopic examination of the various parts of the inner bone
revealed the presence of spheres that could be the remains of red blood cells. Tests showed that
the spheres contained iron-a material vital to the role of red blood cells in transporting oxygen to
tissues. Moreover, the spheres had dark red centers and were also about the size of red blood
cells. On the opposite, the professor stresses that the problem is that scientists found identical
spheres in fossils of other animals in the same place. That includes fossils of primitive animals
that did not have red blood cells when they were alive. So if these spheres appear in organisms
that did not have any red blood cells, then the spheres cannot be the remains of red blood cells.
They probably have a very different origin like pieces of reddish mineral.

Third, in the artical, scientists performed a test on the dinosaur leg that showed that it contained
collagen. Collagen is a fibrous protein that is a main component of living bone tissue, in which it
forms a so-called collagen matrix. Collagen is exactly the kind of biochemilcal that one would
expect to find in the association with bone tissue. Nevertheless, the professor denies the idea by
saying that it should be no older that 100,000 years that the collagen was ever found, which
represents that it could not last that long. But the fossil of T. rex was discovered 70 million years
ago. The facts are contradicting, and consequently, the collagen may not come from T. rex’s leg
bones but rather from another more recent source such as human skin. The researchers might
left collagen on the bone while haddling it.