Anybody, including a dinosaur, is unhappy when they suffer from whooping coughs, excessive sneezing, fevers, and hammering headaches. Earlier this year, scientists found the first signs of respiratory sickness in a sauropod, a herbivorous kind of dinosaur that lived around 150 million years ago throughout the Jurassic era (201.3 mil. to 145 mil. years ago) in current Montana.
The specimen, which was given the name “Dolly,” was found to have malformed features in the neck bones. It is thought that the vertebrae were formerly attached to air sacs that connected to the lungs, and so formed part of the sauropod’s respiratory system. The anomalous look of the bones was most probably triggered by a severe respiratory illness that may have contributed to the dinosaur’s death when it was between 15 and 20 years old, according to the findings of the study.
Paleontologists are baffled as to what sort of bacteria caused the sauropod’s illness. The dinosaur most likely suffered flu-like symptoms that were similar to those experienced by current birds (and humans) suffering from severe respiratory disease. the findings are as follows, according to a research published on February 10 in the journal Scientific Reports.
Dolly
In 1990, paleontologists discovered the fossil, which consisted of a cranium and a portion of the neck in Bozeman, Montana. After putting it in a protective plaster coating, they took it to the adjacent Museum of the Rockies to exhibit it for the public. The fossil, which is now known as MOR 7029, had been sitting in storage at the museum for more than a decade without being inspected.
Microbial infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis may be brought on by viruses, fungus, or parasites. In order to identify what may have caused Dolly’s respiratory difficulty, the research scientists matched the scarring on the fossils to scars caused by respiratory diseases in current birds, who are descended from the dinosaurs’ living ancestry.
Is it possible that Dolly’s illness was serious enough to be fatal? While it is hard to tell for certain, aspergillosis in contemporary birds may be deadly if left untreated, and the fact that the dinosaur was unwell may have decreased its survival odds much more.
