Sick Dinosaur May Have Had the Earliest Known Cough

Peculiar growths on dinosaur neckbones hint at old infection

It takes much force to cough a loogie up a nearly 4-meter-long neck, but that is what one dinosaur had to do. The Guardian reports that paleontologists have discovered unusual nodules on the neck of a 150-million-year-old sauropod, proof of the first known respiratory infection in a dinosaur.

The long-necked dinosaur, nicknamed Dolly, lived during the late Jurassic period and was discovered in Montana more than 30 years ago. When scientists recently re-examined the skeleton, they discovered strange broccoli-shaped bone collections near where the animal’s air sacs would certainly have been. They looked similar to identical spurs that spring up in birds’ lungs when they get a respiratory system infection, and computerized tomography scans validated the idea, the researchers write recently in Scientific Reports.

The group thinks the infection was similar to aspergillosis, which is caused by breathing in mold and also can be fatal to modern birds. They do not know whether the infection killed Dolly. It is clear the poor dinosaur would certainly have been feverish, coughing, and also sniffling, they say.

Read the original article on Science.

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