The unprecedented discovery was made in southern Alberta, Canada, by a team of international archaeologists. Led by researchers from Tel Aviv University, Israel, the archaeologists unearthed the fossilised tail of hadrosaur herbivore that once roamed North America.
But the most critical part of the discovery came when the researchers analysed unusual cavities on the dinosaur’s vertebrae.
According to Dr Hila May from the Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research in Tel Aviv, the cavities are evidence of a benign tumour still seen today.
The expert said archaeologist have never found evidence of such cancer in dinosaur fossils.
Tumours like these are associated with Langerhans cell histiocytosis or LCH, a form of cancer that affects many children under the age of 10.
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The incredible find was published on February 10 in the latest issue of Scientific Reports.
In their study, the researchers wrote: “The hadrosaur pathology findings were indistinguishable from those of humans with LCH, supporting that diagnosis.
“This report suggests that hadrosaurids had suffered from larger variety of pathologies than previously reported.”
Professor Bruce Rothschild of Indiana University, US; Professor Frank Rühli of the University of Zurich, Switzerland; and Darren Tanke of the Royal Museum of Paleontology also contributed to the study.
Dr Hila said: “Professor Rothschild and Tanke spotted an unusual finding in the vertebrae of a tail of a young dinosaur of the grass-eating herbivore species, common in the world 66 to 80 million years ago.
“There were large cavities in two of the vertebrae segments, which were unearthed at the Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta, Canada.”
LCH-related tumours, which can be very painful, suddenly appear in the bones of children
Dr Hila May, Tel Aviv University
The archaeologists were attracted to the unusual shape of the cavities.
Dr May said: “They were extremely similar to the cavities produced by tumours associated with the rare disease LCH that still exists today in humans.
“Most of the LCH-related tumours, which can be very painful, suddenly appear in the bones of children aged 2 to 10 years.
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“Thankfully, these tumours disappear without intervention in many cases.”
The finding suggests LCH is not unique to humans and it has survived more than 60 million years.
During this time, a killer asteroid impact is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs and two-thirds of all life on Earth.
The dinosaur vertebrae were sent for micro-CT scanning in Israel, at the University of Israel and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine in Tel Aviv.
Dr May said: “The micro-CT produces very high-resolution imaging, up to a few microns.
“We scanned the dinosaur vertebrae and created a computerised 3-D reconstruction of the tumour and the blood vessels that fed it.
“The micro and macro analyses confirmed that it was, in fact, LCH.
“This is the first time this disease has been identified in a dinosaur.”
Professor Israel Hershkovitz from Tel Aviv University added: “These kinds of studies, which are now possible thanks to innovative technology, make an important and interesting contribution to evolutionary medicine, a relatively new field of research that investigates the development and behaviour of diseases over time.
“We are trying to understand why certain diseases survive evolution with an eye to deciphering what causes them in order to develop new and effective ways of treating them.”
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