Fossil Forensics

Bones are sick - and this time, we mean it literally. From infected bite marks to the ever-prevalent markings of tuberculosis, we're talking about the signs of illnesses and injuries in fossils and what they tell us about the lives (and deaths) of these animals.

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Cancer, infections and pus, injuries, animal suffering, Meaghan calling things a T. rex that are not, in fact a T. rex

Images From the Episode

References

Witzmann, F., & Asbach, P. (2022). Disease in the Fossil Record. In The Routledge Handbook of Paleopathology (pp. 541-556). Routledge.

Rothschild, B. M., & Laub, R. (2006). Hyperdisease in the late Pleistocene: validation of an early 20th century hypothesis. Naturwissenschaften, 93(11), 557-564.

Rothschild, B. M., Surmik, D., & Bertozzo, F. (2023). Modern Paleopathology, the Study of Diagnostic Approach to Ancient Diseases, their Pathology and Epidemiology: Let there Be Light, the Light of Science and Critical Thinking. New York, NY, USA: Springer. 


Understanding tuberculosis in elephants https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-022-03356-8

Stilson, Kelsey T., Samantha SB Hopkins, and Edward Byrd Davis. "Osteopathology in Rhinocerotidae from 50 million years to the present." PLoS One 11.2 (2016): e0146221. 


https://peerj.com/articles/7803/#fig-10 

allosaurus jimmadseni


https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1671/0272-4634(2002)022%5B0076:MIAIIA%5D2.0.CO;2?casa_token=EM-0y4Ux2VwAAAAA:ccBHDP_DWbcT1pas3r3-IQetH50CV3aeQQ-SuujGjC5I0GNI2gupELWOhZQ598j8lNZUYTIogbAR

big al ouchies 


https://blog.everythingdinosaur.com/blog/_archives/2013/07/16/t-rex-tooth-crown-found-embedded-in-an-edmontosaurus-tail-predatory-behaviour.html

edmontosaurus snack


DePalma, R. A., Burnham, D. A., Martin, L. D., Rothschild, B. M., & Larson, P. L. (2013). Physical evidence of predatory behavior in Tyrannosaurus rex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(31), 12560-12564. 



https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Left-ilium-of-Triceratops-sp-MOR-799-in-ventrolateral-view-with-80-bite-marks_fig1_317028057 


Dope Andy Farke paper

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2617760/ 




OMG BONE CANCER IS SO SAD AND REALLY COOL

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/fullarticle/2723578?guestAccessKey=36a3caee-1474-4c66-88e0-e38dc4e8304d

Yara Haridy is awesome


1.7 Ma human cancer

https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/3566 


https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/tyrannosaurus-the-cannibal-84125216/