The pits in Sue’s jawbone probably hurt like hell (Image: )
A trip to the dentist could perhaps have saved many a mighty Tyrannosaurus rex.
Holes found in the jawbones of 10 T. Rex – including “Sue” at the Field Museum in Chicago – may not be battle scars from fighting with rivals as previously thought. The holes are more consistent with parasitic infections that gouged holes up to 5 centimetres wide in the bone, says .
His team examined 61 T. Rex jawbones and observed the holes in 1 in 6 of them. They say the lesions do not resemble bites, but instead are akin to the lesions that protozoan parasite Trichomonas gallinae causes in birds – especially birds of prey such as hawks and ospreys.
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“I think it would have been very painful,” says Wolff. “Probably, most of the pain would come from feeding and the back of the throat, so it would have been very difficult to swallow and likely difficult to breathe.” He concludes that the infected animals probably starved to death as a result.
Journal reference: PLoS ONE (vol 4(9), p e7288)
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