Re: Mesozoic illnesses

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> If people in the future went back to dinosaur times, wouldn't they risk 
> catching Mesozoic diseases?

Not very likely, because infection needs two: pathogens are adapted to more 
or less specific hosts. That's why you can't get foot-and-mouth disease, why 
only a few mammals and nothing else can get rabies, and why chimpanzees can 
be infected with HIV but don't get ill.

> With the Mesozoic being hotter and muggier than today, the bacteria and 
> viruses (virii?) of the time must have been more vigorous than 
> contemporary pathogens,

This does not follow at all. Heat and moisture just make survival outside of 
a host easier for pathogens. BTW, if Latin, then viri with a single i. A 
double i only happens when there's already an i in front of the -us or -um 
part.

> At least more deadly Mesozoic diseases would mean that dinosaurs had 
> superior immunity systems that medical science might want to obtain for 
> analysis...

For that, I recommend today's crocodiles. They live in hot swamps and 
occasionally tear limbs off each other, yet they don't seem to get 
infections.