Did Tyrannosaurus rex suffer from a common bird disease?
Paleontologists Ewan Wolff (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Steve Salisbury (University of Queensland), Jack Horner (Museum of the Rockies) and David Varricchio (Montana State University), published new research in the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal PLoS ONE that found the Tyrannosaurus rex and its close relatives suffered from a potentially life-threatening infectious disease similar to one that occurs in living birds known as trichomonosis. Trichomonas gallinae infections are most prevalent in pigeons which are generally immune. Birds of prey are particularly susceptible to trichomonosis if they eat infected pigeons. Adult birds can then pass the disease to their nestlings through beak-to-beak contact. Tell-tale symptoms of trichomonosis include swellings and holes in the back of the lower jaw. The disease is prevented from infecting the entire interior of the bone by the innate immune response that localizes infections as a result of the actions of a unique avian wh
