Ultraviolet lighting revealed many details of the fossil but showed no preserved soft tissues.
Excavations of dinosaur remains sometimes turn up preserved tissues other than bone, including feathers, embryonic fragments and internal organs.
Theoretically, they had bones and bits of preserved tissue.
Pyritization can result in both solid fossils as well as preserved soft tissues.
However as it may take some time for the preserved splenic tissue to provide the full protection, it has been advised that preoperative vaccination still be given.
Sexual dimorphism in dinosaurs is difficult to study due to the absence of relevant preserved soft tissue in the fossil record.
The absence of previous finds may merely be the result of people assuming preserved tissue was impossible, therefore simply not looking.
In some cases microbes control the phosphatization, and the remains of the microbes that were "feeding" on the preserved tissue form the fossil.
The existence of preserved soft tissue remains and DNA of woolly mammoths has led to the idea that the species could be recreated by scientific means.
A complete specimen of Lazarussuchus with preserved soft tissue was found from the Late Paleocene of France, but has not been assigned to a species.