This archive report was first published on 6 August 2020.
August 6, 2020 - A team of scientists has made a remarkable discovery in the field of paleontology, revealing that dinosaurs suffered from cancer just like humans do today.
The finding, published in the August issue of The Lancet Oncology, was made possible by a thorough examination of a badly malformed Centrosaurus leg bone unearthed in the Alberta badlands in 1989.
Initially thought to be a healed fracture, the bone was re-examined under a microscope and using high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scans, a technique also employed in human cancer care.
The results showed that the bone was actually a malignant tumor, making it the first known case of cancer in dinosaurs.
“The cancer discovery makes dinosaurs more real,” said study co-author Mark Crowther, a dinosaur enthusiast and chair of McMaster University’s medical faculty in Canada.
“We often think of them as mythical creatures, robust and stomping around, but (the diagnosis shows) they suffered from diseases just like people.”
The researchers believe that dinosaurs would have been at a higher risk of developing Osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer that affects youths with fast-growing bones, due to their rapid growth and size.
“In terms of the biology of cancer,” Crowther explained, “you often hear about environmental, dietary and other causes of cancer. Finding a case from more than 75 million years ago you realize it’s just a part of life.”
