Scientists who specialize in dinosaurs rarely have something new to get excited about, but for the first time in more than a century paleontologists have got more than bones to study.

Paleontologists examining remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex found in a Montana sandstone formation believe the remains also contain blood vessels and cells from the 70-million-year-old dinosaur.

Bringing to mind the fictional world of the book and film Jurassic Park, in which scientists use recovered genetic material to clone living examples of the ancient beasts, researchers are now trying to isolate proteins from the material.

"We're doing a lot of stuff in the lab right now that looks promising," lead researcher Mary Higby Schweitzer of North Carolina State University told reporters.

But she cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

"This does not mean that we are cloning dinosaurs in our lab and we probably will not."

The material was recovered when the T. rex's thighbone was broken so that it could fit on a transport helicopter.

After removing minerals from the specimen, Schweitzer said the remaining tissues were soft, transparent and easily manipulated with instruments.

In a paper published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, Schweitzer says the apparent blood vessels and contents of the bone, "are similar in all respects to blood vessels recovered from ... ostrich bone."

Although rare, scientists have come across other examples of ancient soft tissue such as petrified wood, insects in amber and humans encased in peat or ice.

Other fossils might also contain soft tissue specimens, but most are reluctant to destroy the integrity of an ancient bone to find out.

Scientists hope the study of soft tissue samples from dinosaurs can answer such nagging questions as whether they were warm or cold blooded beasts, and how they relate to animals that are still alive today.

With files from The Associated Press