Sue is one of the most complete dinosaur fossils ever discovered by humans! Through the study of this mighty Tyrannosaurus rex that once ruled the earth in ancient times, archaeologists have obtained many interesting stories of that era.
For example, if the dinosaurs of that time were very similar to today's humans, it seemed that they all needed a dentist, this profession! Human beings are very happy, and at least their kind will become doctors full-time, knowing how to use tools to help you remove tooth decay. Unfortunately, Tyrannosaurus Rex Su, until the moment it left this world, the problem of severe toothache still accompanied it. The dinosaur fossils it left behind, three small strange-shaped teeth, also allowed our scientific expedition personnel to successfully restore and understand the painful experience of oral infection in that year.
This interesting and tricky research topic, the relevant paper results were also disclosed at the online annual meeting of the Paleontological Society on October 13, which still aroused the discussion of academic peers. And lead researcher Brink Kirstin Brink, who is currently only an assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg! But she carefully observed details that no one else had noticed, even Sue's skeleton, which had been placed there and displayed at the Chicago Museum of Natural History.
Or, in the past, everyone habitually classified the problem of dinosaur tooth deformity simply into genetics, and finally, Blick, a small assistant professor, picked up a "leak"! Because, in the theropod dinosaurs, bipedal animals, including Tyrannosaurus rex, especially carnivorous dinosaurs, often had dental problems, and people subconsciously blamed this problem on heredity.
However, the focus of Bollinger's puzzlement is that the three developing teeth of Tyrannosaurus Rex Sue show a very strange deformity! Squeezed, bent, with a strange, almost wavy texture on both sides. It's like a bulge growing in your mouth and making them like this.
And flipping through the relevant academic papers of his peers in the past, such as a study published in a journal in 2009, he mentioned that he had examined the Tyrannosaurus rex su and found that it had a strange hole in its jaw, and he speculated that this powerful dinosaur overlord was likely to have suffered from trichomoniasis, a oral infection caused by parasites!
Combining this direction, Brinker specially gave Sue a CT scan of his teeth, drew a 3D image, and then demonstrated this causal relationship again.
First of all, Sue's teeth, with the exception of three strange teeth, were all normal. This most likely excludes that the deformity of the tooth is caused by genetic mutations.
Secondly, modern birds, the descendants of the theropod carnivorous dinosaurs, also develop large, waxy white pustules in their throats when they suffer from trichomoniasis, also known as mouth ulcer disease. Even this infection can be transferred through the skin and skull, resulting in the possibility of many organ tissues in the head of birds being infected. However, modern birds have degenerated the tooth part, so it is difficult to take a sample from modern birds to study the Tyrannosaurus rex, and if such an infection occurs in the tissues of the tooth part, will it cause such a situation?
But she wasn't discouraged, she hypothesized that if Sue was really infected, where would the drum bag grow? This inevitably leads to an extra bulge in the jaw compared to the normal tooth development. And modern sharks and Rex dogs have had similar situations, but they are all growing new teeth all the time, deformed teeth? Just let it fall off and grow a new one!
But Tyrannosaurus Rex Sue, no such feature! After hearing this interesting study, Johnson-Ransom, who specializes in the eating behavior of the theropod suborder carnivorous dinosaurs, also felt sorry for his beloved Sue: It is hard to imagine how painful It would be when Sue was still alive! Every time you eat, drink and chew, it's a challenge!
What makes them feel that this topic is of great academic significance is that this disease is likely to be a transmissible infectious disease, and if other dinosaurs also encountered the same situation, the same impact on the tooth creation, prehistoric rulers, their living conditions, may not be as comfortable as we think.