PALAEOBLOG: A Sick T. rex
A new study pins the demise of ‘Sue’ and other tyrannosaurs with similar scars on an avian parasitic infection called trichomonosis, caused by a single-celled parasite that causes similar pathologies on the mandibles of modern birds, raptors in particular.
The focus of the new study was a survey of lesions on the jaws of Sue and nine other tyrannosaur specimens. The lesions had previously been attributed to bite wounds or, possibly, a bacterial infection.
It is possible the infection in her throat and mouth may have been so acute that the 42-foot-long, 7-ton dinosaur starved to death, says Wolff.
It’s a dinosaur. It died 65+ million years ago. I shouldn’t be sad. (I blame Littlefoot, in full.)
