Dino sores

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Tags: centenary-edition, dinosaurs, discovery

University of Queensland research is opening up a new insight into the lives of the mightiest of all dinosaurs, and it isn’t pretty.

A reconstruction showing the jaw of a Tyrannosaurus rex with the avian infection. Image: Chris Glen

UQ palaeontologist Dr Steve Salisbury, together with American colleagues, has found Tyrannosaurus rex and its close relatives suffered from a deadly infectious disease similar to one that occurs in birds today.

Dr Salisbury said the evidence came from unnatural holes in the back of their lower jaws. The research has been published in scientific journal PLoS ONE.

“Some of the world’s most famous T. rex specimens have these holes in their jaws, including ‘Sue’ at the Field Museum in Chicago,” he said.

Dr Salisbury said tyrannosaurs were known to have marks on their heads from biting each other, presumably during territorial disputes or mating, but the holes he and his colleagues were interested in were at the back of the jaws, too far back to be bite marks.

“These holes don’t show any of the normal characteristics of bite marks,” he said.

“It’s as if someone took to the jaws with a hot poker. Some specimens look like Swiss cheese.

“We now believe that these holes are caused by an infectious disease called trichomonosis.”

He said trichomonosis was a modern avian disease caused by a parasite and is most prevalent in pigeons, which are generally immune.

“Birds of prey are particularly susceptible to trichomonosis if they eat infected pigeons,” he said.

Dr Salisbury and fellow researchers Ewan Wolff, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Jack Horner and David Varricchio from Montana State University, examined many T. rex fossils as part of their study including ‘Sue’, the most famous and complete specimen of all.

Dr Salisbury said the link in disease was not surprising given the evolutionary relationship of dinosaurs to birds, but the discovery represented a major step forward in understanding of disease history in birds and their dinosaurian precursors.

Dr Salisbury said the disease appeared to be quite common in tyrannosaurs and would have been deadly to those that were infected.

“Fighting and specifically head-biting would have been an ideal mechanism for spreading the disease among tyrannosaurs. We can see similarities with what has been happening to Tasmanian devils recently, where a malignant and debilitating oral cancer is being spread by animals fighting and biting each other’s faces,” he said.

To learn more about Dr Salisbury’s work, visit his laboratory’s webpage.

By Andrew Dunne

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