Fossilised red blood cells found in 115m-year-old dinosaur’s bone, say scientists

Chemical tests on Aratasaurus bone identify presence of heme, the organic compound that allows haemoglobin in blood to carry oxygen around body

It could be the opening of a Jurassic Park rip-off: scientists examining ancient dinosaur bones find what appear to be fossilised red blood cells, and traces of the molecule that gives the beast’s blood its distinctive crimson hue.

But that is what researchers are claiming to have discovered after analysing the hind leg bones of a small, meat-eating dinosaur called an Aratasaurus that lived and died in what is now north-eastern Brazil 115m years ago.