This list of pathological dinosaur specimens enumerates those fossil dinosaur specimens that preserve evidence of injury, disease, deformity or parasitic infection.
A smooth depression set into a patch of wrinkly-textured bone above the right eye and the squamosal bone, probably due to advanced age. This individuals neck exhibits extensive bony growth with a "cauliflower" texture fusing the fifth through 9th vertebrae and their ribs. Rega, Holmes, and Tirabasso have hypothesized that this growth was a chondrosarcoma resulting from several osteochondromas occurring there. They also identified a benign osteoma in the fourth toe of the right hind foot. They also found lesions and bony growths deforming the animal's first right metacarpal.[2]
The skull of ROM 843 exhibits resorption of bone both near the eye-horns and on the frill, thought to be signs of aging. It also has bony growths on its fourth right metacarpal and on its eighth and ninth body ribs. However, the most important pathology are the many lesions covering the animal's thumbs. These lesions give the bone a very rough texture and deform the digits. The right thumb was the most severely deformed and is bent at a 42 degree angle, while the left thumb was bent 20 degrees away from healthy alignment.
A rounded growth of unknown origins projects from the underside of this specimen's squamosal bone. Tanke and Rothschild failed to determine its cause, but hypothesized that it might be the result of an avulsion injury.
The jugal and epijugal of this specimen bear a 2 cm wide round hole, although Tanke and Rothschild have considered that this hole may have formed as a result of non-pathological processes.
One of this animal's neck vertebrae exhibited several pathologies. This vertebra had deformed prezygapophyses, a bone spure on its centrum and the rear surface of its end plat Tanke and Rothschild characterized as having a "'moth-eaten' appearance".
The beak of this specimen is missing the rounded notch seen in most Pachyrhinosaurus. According to Tanke and Rothschild, this absence may not necessarily be due to pathology, however.
This animal had a neck vertebra whose neural arch failed to fuse to its centrum as the animal grew. Further, this vertebra's right prezygapophysis was "misshapen".
This specimen was afflicted by several pathologies of its skull. One was a "large hole" located in below and in front of the right eye. There was also a short round growth on the left branch of the maxilla and lesions on the left squamosal.
The horns on the rear edge of the right parietal were larger and curved in a different direction than those on the left side. Tanke and Rothschild suggested that this asymmetry may just be an anatomical idiosyncrasy of this individual animal rather than a pathology.
The right humerus of this animal exhibits a spur-like lesion resulting from the healing process following a "stress injury or repetitive overexertion of the muscles resulting in an avulsion". This spur-like lesion would have caused long term fasciitis and myosistis.[7]
Sue the T. rex, also known as FMNH PR2081, suffered an avulsion that left a divot and hook-shaped bone spur on "her" right humerus.[8] The divot appears to be located at the origin of the deltoid or teres major muscles.[8] Some experts have hypothesized that gout caused the formation of small patches of eroded bone discovered on Sue's first and second metacarpals.[9] Five other pathologies have been documented in Sue; a pathology on each side of its skull, a twisted and discolored tooth, two pathological tail vertebrae in series, and a broken and healed fibula with associated abnormal bone growth.[10]
Sue.
Footnotes
^ abRega, Holmes, and Tirabasso (2010); "Abstract", page 340.
^Rega, Holmes, and Tirabasso (2010); "Table 24.1", page 344.
^ abcdefghiTanke and Rothschild (2010); "Table 25.2", page 377.
McWhinney, L., Carpenter, K., and Rothschild, B., 2001, Dinosaurian humeral periostitis: a case of a juxtacortical lesion in the fossil record: In: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life, edited by Tanke, D. H., and Carpenter, K., Indiana University Press, pp. 364–377
Molnar, R. E., 2001, Theropod paleopathology: a literature survey, In: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life, edited by Tanke, D. H., and Carpenter, K., Indiana University Press, p. 337-363.
Rega, Elizabeth; Holmes, Robert; Tirabasso, Alex (2010). "Chapter 24: Habitual Locomotor Behavior Inferred from Manual Pathology in Two Late Cretaceous Chasmosaurine Ceratopsid Dinosaurs, Chasmosaurus irvinensis (CMN 41357) and Chasmosaurus belli (ROM 843)". In Ryan, Michael J.; Chinnery-Allgeier, Brenda J.; Eberth, David A. (eds.). New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Ceratopsian Symposium. Indiana University Press. pp. 340–354. ISBN978-0253353580.
Tanke, Darren H.; Rothschild, Bruce M. (2010). "Chapter 25: Paleopathologies in Albertan Ceratopsids and Their Behavioral Significance". In Ryan, Michael J.; Chinnery-Allgeier, Brenda J.; Eberth, David A. (eds.). New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Ceratopsian Symposium. Indiana University Press. pp. 355–384. ISBN978-0253353580.
