Dinosaurs were Mammals

Dinosaurs had mammalian red blood cells
Abstract:
No one has scientifically claimed to have found and described
dinosaurs' red blood cells, fossilized or not. The author claims to
have found the remains of the red blood cells of a dinosaur. The
author also claims dinosaurs had red blood cells like those of modern
mammals. The claim is founded on his discovery that red blood cell-
like micro-structures in the fossil are not only round but also
concave with flat bottoms showing no nuclei.

Materials and Methods:
A dinosaur vertebra fossil was cut by a technician of the geology
department, National Taiwan University. A small piece, a thin section
and a thick section were obtained.
The small piece was examined and photographed with a scanning electron
machine (SEM). The thick section was examined and photographed with a
digital microscope. The photographs are at:
http://www.wretch.cc/album/album.php?id=lin440315&book=12

The photographs show the dinosaur had micro-structures that closely
resemble the red blood cells of modern mammals. These micro-structures
do not resemble the red blood cells of modern reptiles or modern
birds.
How the fossil was found? In 2004, a retired employee of a museum in
Yunnan Province, China (ref. 1) found a few pieces of fossils exposed
in a badland near a mountain top (see Google map, Figure P1-1). He
informed the museum and the museum asked me to invest in excavating
the site. To convince me, a team of dinosaur experts (ref. 2) took me
to the site and showed me the exposed fossils. One dinosaur expert
(ref.3) dug up one piece of the exposed fossil and gave it to me on
the spot. Then I used my bare hands to dig deeper into the same spot
and found another piece of fossil. I was convinced that the site
contained articulated bones, not just scattered bones. So, I signed an
agreement with the museum to jointly excavate the site. The excavation
dug up many dinosaur bones, which are now kept in the Tsu Hsiung
Museum in Yunnan Province. A dinosaur expert, Dr. Timothy Da-yi Huang
(ref. 4) issued me an excavation report. A dinosaur expert, Mr. Yang
Foodzing (Ref. 5) identified the fossil as the vertebra of a sauropod
of 160 million years ago. He had collected dinosaur fossils for Lufeng
Dinosaur Museum for over 20 years. In the summer of 2006, Mr. David J.
Varricchio (ref. 6), assistant professor of paleontology at Montana
State University, took his graduate student, Mr. Michael J. Knell
(ref. 7), to the place 150 meters away from where I found my fossil.
They identified that place (claimed to contain another five dinosaurs)
as early Jurassic and my site as late Jurassic.
How the material was examined? The vertebra fossil was cut at the base
of one of its processes. A small piece (3cm x 1 cm x 0.5 cm) with
weathered exterior was obtained and taken directly to the SEM without
any biochemical treatment. An SEM technician heated the small piece at
50 degrees Centigrade for ten minutes in an oven and coated the fossil
with a thin layer of two-nano ions. As the fossil had experienced 160
million years of weather, its micro-structures on the exterior surface
are mostly broken, as seen in the high-magnification SEM micrographs
(figures P1-0-1,P1-0-2). Below the above-mentioned exterior, a 0.1mm-
thick section was cut and ground. The author used a new type of
reflected-light digital microscope (ref. 7A). It can send massive
bright white light vertically down into the cavities of the micro-
structures, thus reflecting what are at the bottoms of the cavities.
It can also measure the images, but its measurements are accurate only
when the measured objects are shown as very clear big images. Objects
not in the exact focus can still show recognizable images, but
measuring their sizes do not get accurate numbers.
This article does not focus on the exact size of the dinosaur's red
blood cell-like micro-structures, or the exact preservation conditions
of the micro-structures, or the exact species/age of the dinosaur
fossil. This article focuses only on the shapes of the red blood cell-
like micro-structures of the dinosaur vertebra, because these shapes
are a good criteria for determining whether an animal is/was a mammal
or not. The criteria is that mammals have unique round and biconcave
cells called red blood cells ( RBC or erythrocytes) while non-mammals,
such as reptiles, birds, fish, and amphibians, do not have cells that
are both round and biconcave ( ref. 8, "Cell Size Database"
http://www.genomesize.com/cellsize/
ref.9,http://biae.clemson.edu/biolab/blood.html)
Mammals' red blood cells often change from round shape to oblong or
oval shapes when passing through capillaries. However, non-mammals
(reptiles, birds, fish, amphibians) have red blood cells that are oval
in general. Rarely do their cells change shapes from oval ones into
round and concave shape with flat bottoms.
The author does not use the lack of cell nuclei to make his claim,
because cells could easily lose nuclei during fossilization. The only
criteria the author used is whether the cell-like micro-structures are
both round and concave with bottoms or not.


Results:
In a single thick section, more than one hundred red blood cell-like
micro-structures are found to be both round and concave with a bottom.
Most of them are over 20 microns in diameter. As these red blood cell-
like micro-structures exist at different heights on the same thick
section, they appeared to be of different sizes in the reflected light
of the digital microscopes. Those at the same heights have more or
less the same size. All living mammals have red blood cells of 2 -11
microns in diameter (ref. 8). The dinosaur fossil had the same type of
micro-structures as the mammals' red blood cells. But they are over
20 microns in diameter, much larger than any living animal, thus
excluding the possibility of the specimen being contaminated. They are
abundant and evident in the attached photos (figures P1 to P25). They
are not only round, but also concave with mostly flat bottoms, showing
no cell nuclei. When most of the cell surfaces were concave in
structure, it was no surprise that they had no cell nuclei. No round
cells with nuclei are biconcave for over 50 percent of the cell
surface (Ref. 10).

Above all , the author's results can be easily reproduced, as many
dinosaur fossils were preserved just like the author's fossilized red
blood cells of the dinosaur.

These specimens were not artificially stained, but natural bright
colors (blue, red, straw-yellowish, white/transparent) are vividly
shown in some structures that resemble living arteries, veins, and red
blood cells.
(See attached figures P3, P4, P8, P12, P16).
Some of the red blood cell-like micro-structures in the attached
figures were not there before preparation of the thick section. (They
were moved there during the technician's preparation of the specimen--
cutting, grinding, gluing between glasses, etc.). Some were smeared
there before fossilization. But a large part of the micro-structures
were apparently right there when they were fossilized - in arteries,
veins, ducts, etc. None of them were reworked or moved there
artificially, although reworked remains/fossils of red blood cells/
blood vessels are abundant in our daily lives.

Conclusions:
The author's results can be easily reproduced by professionals and
amateurs alike, because there are many dinosaur fossils that are
preserved in the same way as the author's dinosaur bone was
preserved.
The micro-structures of the dinosaur fossil (marked with arrows or
squares in the attached micrographs) closely resemble those of
mammalian red blood cells commonly seen in biology textbooks, but
differ categorically from those of non-mammalian red blood cells. They
were mammalian because they are round and concave with bottoms , while
non-mammals simply do not have such cells in their bodies. There is no
exception to the above distinction between mammals and non-mammals.
Dinosaurs should not be excluded from the above distinction criteria
for any vested interested. (That's the least we can do for their
extinction.) Therefore, the micro-structures in the dinosaur specimens
should be the remains of the red blood cells of a mammalian dinosaur.
Think of that-a gigantic mammal in the Jurassic Period.

References:
1. The museum: Tsu Hsiung Museum, Yunnan Province, China Tel:
86-878-3127463
2. The experts: Dr. Timothy Dayi Huang
CEO of DinoDragon International Research Foundation
e-mail: timd_huang@xxxxxxxxx
Mr. Yang Foodzing, research technician of Lufeng Dinosaur
Museum
Tel: 86-878-4122718 86-878-4130652
3. Mr. Yang of Ref. 2
4. Dr. Huang of Ref. 2
5. Mr. Yang of Ref. 2
6. Dr. Varricchio: Department of Earth Sciences
Montana State Department
P.O. Box 173480 Bozeman
Montana 59717-3480
e-mail: djv@xxxxxxxxxxx
7. Mr. Michael J. Knell: M.S. Paleontology
e-mail: knell007@xxxxxxxxxxx
Research Project: Early Jurassic Prosauropod Taphonomy and Regional
Stratigraphy of the Lufeng
Basin, Yunnan Province, China
7A. The microscope used is Dino Lite AM313T5, made by Anmo Co.
(www.anmo.com.tw)
8. See "Cell Size Database" at
http://www.genomesize.com/cellsize/
http://www.genomesize.com/cellsize/mammals.htm
9. Dr. Robert V. Blystone at http://biae.clemson.edu/biolab/blood.html
10. Dr. Stephen Britland B.Sc. Ph.D. ILT-M
Reader in Cell Biology
School of Pharmacy
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP, UK.
S.T.Britland@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tel. 0044 (0)1274 234695
Fax. 0044 (0)1274 234660
11. Specialist consulted;
Fabian Blank, Ph.D.
Abt. Histologie
Institut f r Anatomie
Universit t Bern
Baltzerstrasse 2
CH-3000 Bern 9
Tel: ++41'31'631'48'79
Fax: ++41'31'631'38'07
E-Mail: blank@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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