Did dinosaurs suffer from bone cancer that afflicts humans today?
Dinosaurs used to suffer from osteosarcoma, an aggressive malignant cancer that humans contract usually in the second or third decade of their life, scientists at a Canadian university have concluded in their research.
The McMaster University said in a press statement that dinosaurs had bone tumors.
This research refuted a presumption regarding a malformed lower leg bone of a horned dinosaur called Centrosaurus unearthed in 1989 and originally thought to be a healing fracture.
The researcher found out after a detailed analysis of the fossil that the extinct creature had osteosarcoma.
It’s an overgrowth of disorganised bone that spreads rapidly both through the bone and to other organs.
“Here, we show the unmistakable signature of advanced bone cancer in 76-million-year-old horned dinosaur, the first of its kind,” said Dr Mark said Crowther, a professor of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University.
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