Colds, coughs and fevers are experienced across the animal kingdom, and the dinosaurs that roamed the Earth millions of years ago were no exception. Now, evidence of dinosaur flu has been found in the fossil record for the first time, – in the bones of a juvenile dinosaur.
The skeleton of this young dinosaur shows bone damage which was most likely caused by a respiratory disease. The dinosaur in question belonged to the same group as the iconic large and long-necked Brachiosaurs. Close inspection of the individual revealed damage to certain vertebrae, also known as a lesion, which was sustained during the animal’s life due to disease.. By a process of elimination to rule out other possible causes, the research team working with the fossil concluded that the lesion was likely caused by an infection that spread from the animals’ respiratory system to their bones.
As with modern birds, the only surviving line of dinosaurs, evidence suggests that extinct dinosaurs lacked diaphragms and instead used a series air sacs to push air in and out of their lungs. Consequently, this long-necked dinosaur would have had numerous air spaces within the vertebrae along their neck. It is via these spaces that an infection in the respiratory system could spread to the bones, leading to the lesions forming that can be observed today.
It is challenging to identify exactly what this infection was, largely because the soft-tissues used in living animals to make such a diagnosis was lost long ago when the dinosaur became fossilised. However, the team studying the fossils have given a tentative diagnosis of fungus-caused air sac disease. This is something modern birds and reptiles suffer from and can lead to bone infections. It’s impossible to know whether the disease killed this particular dinosaur, but in poultry it can be fatal without prompt treatment.
This discovery is an exciting piece in the puzzle of understanding the history of diseases. Most understanding of symptoms in living birds are limited to the soft-tissues, but it’s hoped that with more studies, scientists will have a better understanding of how to identify disease in the fossil record.
