Remember that T-rex that scared you silly in Jurassic Park? The one that even ate lawyers?
Scientists are now suggesting one specimen, a 7-ton monster now on display in Chicago, may have been killed by something you'd need a microscope to find.
This is from Yahoo! News:
... the remains of Sue, a star attraction of the Field Museum in Chicago, possess holes in her jaw that some believed were battle scars, the result of bloody combat with another dinosaur, possibly another T. rex ... Now researchers suggest these scars did not result from a clash of titans, but rather from a lowly parasite. The infection in Sue's throat and mouth may have been so severe that the 42-foot-long, 7-ton dinosaur starved to death.... the ailment the scientists propose felled Sue and other T. rexes is trichomonosis, also known as trichomoniasis. In birds, the disease is caused by Trichomonas gallinae, a single-celled protozoan. Although some birds, such as pigeons, commonly host the parasite but suffer few ill effects, in birds of prey such as falcons and hawks, the germ causes a pattern of serious lesions in the lower beak that closely matches the holes in the jaws of Sue and occurs in the same anatomical location ... "It's ironic to think that an animal as mighty as 'Sue' probably died as a result of a parasitic infection. I'll never look at a feral pigeon the same way again," said researcher Steven Salisbury at the University of Queensland in Australia ...
I just had to include this scene. For me, it was one of those rare uplifting moments in cinematic history. Folks in the movie house thought I was crazy when I gave it a standing ovation. OK. That's another story.
Video: From Jurassic Park, Universal Pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment