She initially thought she would study how the microscopic structure of dinosaur bones differs depending on how much the animal weighs. Soon after, she talked her way into a volunteer position in Horner’s lab and began to pursue a doctorate in paleontology. The lectures reignited her passion for dinosaurs. In 1989, a dozen years after she graduated from college, she sat in on a class at Montana State University taught by paleontologist Jack Horner, of the Museum of the Rockies, now an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. But first she got a college degree in communicative disorders, married, had three children and briefly taught remedial biology to high schoolers. In fact, at age 5 she announced she was going to be a paleontologist. Growing up in Helena, Montana, she went through a phase when, like many kids, she was fascinated by dinosaurs. It may be that Schweitzer’s unorthodox approach to paleontology can be traced to her roundabout career path. But when creationists misrepresent Schweitzer’s data, she takes it personally: she describes herself as “a complete and total Christian.” On a shelf in her office is a plaque bearing an Old Testament verse: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Of course, it’s not unusual for a paleontologist to differ with creationists. They claim her discoveries support their belief, based on their interpretation of Genesis, that the earth is only a few thousand years old. Meanwhile, Schweitzer’s research has been hijacked by “young earth” creationists, who insist that dinosaur soft tissue couldn’t possibly survive millions of years. And the new findings might help settle a long-running debate about whether dinosaurs were warmblooded, coldblooded-or both. “It’s great science.” The observations could shed new light on how dinosaurs evolved and how their muscles and blood vessels worked. We don’t go to all this effort to dig this stuff out of the ground to then destroy it in acid,” says dinosaur paleontologist Thomas Holtz Jr., of the University of Maryland. “The reason it hasn’t been discovered before is no right-thinking paleontologist would do what Mary did with her specimens. Schweitzer, one of the first scientists to use the tools of modern cell biology to study dinosaurs, has upended the conventional wisdom by showing that some rock-hard fossils tens of millions of years old may have remnants of soft tissues hidden away in their interiors. After all, as any textbook will tell you, when an animal dies, soft tissues such as blood vessels, muscle and skin decay and disappear over time, while hard tissues like bone may gradually acquire minerals from the environment and become fossils. The finding amazed colleagues, who had never imagined that even a trace of still-soft dinosaur tissue could survive. rex bone-the first observation of its kind. It was big news indeed last year when Schweitzer announced she had discovered blood vessels and structures that looked like whole cells inside that T. “Cool beans,” she says, looking at the image on the screen. “I am, like, really excited.”Īfter 68 million years in the ground, a Tyrannosaurus rex found in Montana was dug up, its leg bone was broken in pieces, and fragments were dissolved in acid in Schweitzer’s laboratory at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. “Ho-ho-ho, I am excite-e-e-e-d,” she chuckles. Neatly dressed in blue Capri pants and a sleeveless top, long hair flowing over her bare shoulders, Mary Schweitzer sits at a microscope in a dim lab, her face lit only by a glowing computer screen showing a network of thin, branching vessels.
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