HWN Suggests

The ancient diseases that plagued the dinosaurs

"The field initiated as a speculation…but it actually is a scientific endeavour now, and we can scientifically test hypotheses, and develop criteria," says Bruce Rothschild, a research associate in vertebrate palaeontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pennsylvania. "It turns out the diseases that afflicted dinosaurs have essentially the same appearance as those that affect humans or other critters."

The results of these investigations are revealing previously unknown details of how dinosaurs lived and died. Some argue they could also give medical experts new insights about the diseases still affecting us in the present day.

read full article

Featured

  Life will find a way: could scientists make Jurassic Park a reality?

Just a few years from now, herds of woolly ‘mammoths’ could be roaming the Siberian tundra. Are dodos and dinosaurs next for de-extinction?

 Can we bring back dinosaurs?

Dinosaurs dominated Earth for over 140 million years before having their reign ended by a colossal asteroid impact. Is it possible to bring these long gone reptiles back from the dead and, if we could, would we really want to?

 Will the Dinosaurs be Back? A Look at Predictions for their Return

Dinosaurs were big and mighty creatures that ruled over the earth for millions of years. They were long gone before humans even came into existence, but some scientists say they might be back! There has been a good deal of discussion about the possibility of dinosaurs returning in recent years. While many people had learned in school that they went extinct around 66 million years ago, several people have tried to prove otherwise. The debate about the possibility of dinosaurs returning continues today. Scientists continue to disagree on whether it could happen because there is no evidence to support it yet

Articles of Interest

'Dinosaurs Among Us' Exhibit Soars and Roars on Upper West Side

Dinosaurs Among Us, a new exhibit opening soon at the American Museum of Natural History, explores how some reptile species evolved into the birds we know today.

'Jurassic World' Has Awesome Dinos, Iffy Science

The summer blockbuster "Jurassic World" roared through its opening weekend, showing moviegoers Hollywood's version of baby Triceratops, armored ankylosaurus and long-necked sauropods, as well as a terrifying genetically engineered hybrid named Indominus rex. But how accurate are these dinosaur depictions?

Ask a DNA Expert: What Would It Take to Bring Back the Dinosaurs?

Scientists have cloned an endangered species. Some wonder if there could be a real-life Jurassic Park.

Did dinosaurs have gut bacteria?

This statement may be a surprise to some of you: Birds are dinosaurs. As incredible as it may seem, scientists believe that birds evolved from small, feathered dinosaurs called maniraptoran theropods. As such, experts class birds as dinosaurs. Perhaps our feathered friends would be a good place to begin our search for a dinosaur gut microbiome. Birds do, indeed, have gut bacteria.

Dinosaurs got sick, too — but from what?

About 150 million years ago, a long-necked sauropod came down with a respiratory infection. The rest is history...or is it?

Dinosaurs Were Warm-blooded, Groundbreaking Study Finds

Just like the birds that descended from them, and like us, dinosaurs could regulate body temperature, paleothermometrists conclude from analyzing eggshells of three major dinosaur groups.

Do we know anything about the kinds of diseases that affected dinosaurs?

The question of what diseases affected dinosaurs is an intriguing one. Actually, dinosaurs may have been healthier than people are today. As far as we can tell from the fossil record, disease was relatively rare among most dinosaurs.

Feathers may have helped dinosaurs survive the Triassic mass extinction

Volcanic winters set off by massive eruptions may have spelled doom for many uninsulated reptiles.

First dinosaur found with a respiratory disease

Odd growths in the fossilized neck bones of a sauropod suggest the animal suffered from infected air sacs about 145 million years ago.

How Giant Dinosaurs Evolved to Stay Cool

Giant dinosaurs, such as long-necked sauropods, evolved special cooling systems to prevent overheating and brain damage, according to a new study.

Into the Wild: Playing God With Resurrection Biology

“We’re not getting the dinosaurs back because DNA is not preserved in species that old,” says Santa Clara environmental studies and sciences Professor Virginia Matzek of the premise behind the Michael Crichton novel, in which scientists “extracted” dinosaur blood from an ancient mosquito trapped in amber. The incomplete dinosaur DNA, added to the DNA from a frog, was implanted into an ostrich egg, from which a baby dinosaur later hatched. Yet today, millions of dollars actually are being invested in re-creating other extinct animals, most notably the woolly mammoth. DNA from the behemoths that once roamed Europe, Asia and North America until 10,000 years ago “is not so terribly degraded that you can’t piece it back together,” says Matzek.

Pain in dinosaurs: what is the evidence?

How far back can we trace behaviour associated with pain? Behaviour is not preserved in the palaeontological record, so, for dinosaurs, we are restricted to what we can deduce from fossilized bones and tracks.

Predatory dinosaurs had lizard-like lips

A new study published in the journal Science has challenged the popular depiction of predatory dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, as having permanently exposed teeth like modern crocodiles. Instead, the experts have discovered that these dinosaurs had lips similar to those of lizards and their relatives,

The Great Dinosaur Die-Off

... we thought dinosaurs had gone extinct due to a giant volcanic explosion. Other scientists believed that a great plague caused dinosaurs to disappear or that they gradually died off because their brains were too small for their massive bodies. But in 1980, a group of scientists reported a "peculiar sedimentary clay layer" that existed around the time of the dinosaur extinction. It contained a thick layer of a rare element called iridium which is found in meteorites. A decade later, scientists uncovered the massive Chicxulub crater, which slammed into the Earth and ended the Age of Dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

This May Seem Far-Fetched, but Dinosaurs Could Roam the Earth Again by 2050

There have been a lot of scary creatures that have walked planet Earth ever since its inception. Although the variety of man-eating species has dwindled as humanity has progressed, there was a point in time where merely stepping outside was a fight for life and limb. This was largely thanks to dinosaurs, the massive reptilian creatures that ruled the planet for millions of years before humans took the reins.