Sick dinosaurs get new study

[bh480@scn.org]

From: Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org
A news story from Australia:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,57
44,15691367%5E30417,00.html


Fiercest dinosaur had sore points
Leigh Dayton, Science writer
June 22, 2005 
THE baddest, boldest dinosaurs on the block were sickly 
beasts, frequently with unsightly sores, tumours and other 
signs of disease.

This unflattering view of Tyrannosaurus rex and its fellow 
Tyrannosauridae - including Albertosaurus, Daspletosaurus 
and Gorgosaurus - comes after an in-depth check-up of the 
pits, ridges and gouges preserved in the fossilised jaws 
of 56 of the two-legged meat-eaters. 
Nearly 30 per cent of the jaws were abnormal, said Ewan 
Wolff, a paleontologist with Montana State University in 
Bozeman. 
"We think of T-rex as an incredibly hardy predator, but it 
got sick a lot more than we thought," said Mr Wolff, who 
studied the telltale remains as part of his doctoral 
thesis with paleontologist David Varricchio. 
Moreover, Mr Wolff said the big beasts got sicker more 
often than related species of the time, including 
crocodiles. Their remains show evidence of disease in 
about one in 100 cases. 
It's too early to know precisely what sort of disease 
ravaged the scarred dinos, who lived 80 million to 65 
million years ago, but it might have been triggered by 
poor diet, said Mr Wolff, who will present his findings in 
Cairns next week at the Wildlife Disease Association's 
international conference. 
He said the tyrannosaurid bones showed evidence of healed 
injuries, possibly obtained during fights. 
"Researchers have talked about some form of head-biting 
behaviour among tyrannosaurids," he said. 
In Brisbane, University of Queensland paleontologist Steve 
Salisbury agreed a deficient dino diet might have led to a 
systemic illness that caused the abnormalities found by Mr 
Wolff. 
"It looks a little bit like the type of disease you get in 
birds that relates to vitamin D or calcium deficiency 
which softens the bone," he said. 
"Maybe they weren't eating enough bones."