WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Sue, the largest and greatest preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever unearthed, little question was a fearsome beast when this predator prowled what’s now South Dakota about 67 million years in the past on the twilight of the age of dinosaurs.
However even this large dinosaur, whose fossils are displayed on the Area Museum in Chicago, was not invulnerable. A main instance of that is the collection of round holes in Sue’s jawbone that proceed to baffle scientists. New analysis in search of an evidence for these holes has managed to rule out one main speculation, although the reply stays elusive.
Researchers mentioned a detailed examination of the eight holes – some the diameter of a golf ball – on the again half of Sue’s left decrease jawbone, or mandible, decided that they weren’t brought on by a kind of microbial an infection as some specialists had proposed.
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The holes have been discovered to vary from bone harm brought on by such an an infection, mentioned Bruce Rothschild, a medical physician and analysis affiliate on the Carnegie Museum of Pure Historical past in Pittsburgh, lead creator of the examine printed this week within the journal Cretaceous Research.
Sue, measuring 40-1/2 toes lengthy (12.3 meters), represents one of many world’s best-known dinosaur fossils. Tyrannosaurus was one of many largest land predators ever, inhabiting western North America on the finish of the Cretaceous Interval.
Area Museum paleontologist and examine co-author Jingmai O’Connor famous that about 15% of all identified T. rex specimens have holes just like Sue’s.
The researchers explored whether or not the holes had been brought on by an an infection involving microbes referred to as protozoans. One widespread protozoan illness identified to happen in birds, which developed from feathered dinosaurs, in addition to in folks known as trichomoniasis, brought on by a parasitic protozoan. Trichomoniasis in folks, although not birds, is a sexually transmitted illness.
O’Connor famous that one falcon recognized with trichomoniasis had proven harm in its jaw, however it differed from Sue’s holes.
The bone round Sue’s holes confirmed indicators of therapeutic, indicating that no matter prompted them didn’t kill the animal. Similarities have been noticed between Sue’s therapeutic and the healed breaks in different fossilized bones in addition to therapeutic bone seen round holes made within the skulls of historical Inca folks in Peru.
The reason for Sue’s holes stays a puzzle.
Rothschild proposed the potential of claw harm throughout mating, or as he put it: “mounting from again or high with claws putting the posterior mandible.” Sue has a female identify – honoring the girl who found the fossils in 1990 – however the dinosaur’s intercourse is unknown.
“I truthfully don’t have any clue what fashioned them,” O’Connor mentioned. “I actually don’t assume they’re chew marks or claw marks.”
“A pathology that generally affected T. rex people, that prompted massive holes to open up within the jawbone however solely at the back of the jawbone, however did not kill the T. rex as a result of the holes began to heal, not less than in Sue – it is bizarre,” O’Connor added. “So many hypotheses have been put forth solely to be shot down. It is a good paleontology thriller – my favourite.”
The holes weren’t the one examples of harm endured by Sue, a dinosaur that lived about 33 years.
“Sue was fairly previous when it died and it reveals quite a few accidents and pathologies,” O’Connor mentioned. “It had gout in its palms. It had fallen on its proper aspect, busting its ribs – they healed, although. It had torn a ligament in the fitting arm – therapeutic. It had a horrible bone an infection in its left leg. It had arthritis in its tail. It might not have been a cheerful camper the final yr of its life.”
(The story refiles to repair typo in paragraph 13, ‘shot down’.)
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Reporting by Will Dunham; Enhancing by Daniel Wallis
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