We know that dinosaurs experienced broken bones, cancer and skin infections – and now for the first time there’s evidence that they could develop nasty coughs that probably proved fatal
The fossil record has revealed dinosaurs with broken bones,and even cancer, but now, for the first time, palaeontologists have found evidence of a dinosaur with a cough. The serious respiratory infection is only detectable because it left traces in the animal’s bones, which became fossilised. The illness would probably have caused sneezing, coughing, fever and a premature death.
MOR 7029, or Dolly as the specimen is known by palaeontologists, dates back to the late Jurassic period approximately 150 million years ago. The young diplodocid – a large, long-necked herbivorous animal about 18 metres long – was discovered in 1990 in Montana and is still revealing new information.at the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Malta, Montana, and his colleagues found unusual protrusions in three of the dinosaur’s neck bones.
It’s likely that Dolly, who died around the age of 15, despite similar dinosaurs being thought to live twice as long, would have had symptoms similar to a human with a cold, flu or pneumonia: sneezing, coughing, runny nose and fever. “I think that’s really cool that you can hold these infected bones from Dolly in your hand and know that 150 million years ago that dinosaur felt just as crummy when it was sick as you do when you’re sick,” says Woodruff.
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