Dinosaurs contracted a flu-like illness 150 million years ago

Scientists have identified the first evidence that dinosaurs managed to survive the influenza pandemic about 150 million years ago, and have discovered fossil evidence of influenza-like respiratory illness in the bones of a long-necked type of herbivorous dinosaur known as lizards or sauropods, nicknamed "Dolly". Lived about 150 million years ago.

And according to what “RT Arabia” reported, scientists from the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Montana believe that the infection may have spread quickly among the dinosaurs, leaving them coughing, sneezing and shivering. Such as coughing, difficulty breathing and fever, but the respiratory infection did not kill the dinosaurs as they continued to live for another 100 million years after this recorded infection.

Scientist Carrie Woodruff said: "No infection like this has been found in any dinosaur, so it gives us an interesting window into the past. Millions of years ago, before the invention of vaccines and throat remedies, they experienced the same severe symptoms that we all experience."

It is difficult to diagnose the diseases suffered by dinosaurs because their organs and soft tissues did not survive.

But the Dolly fossil, discovered in Montana in 1990, provided scientists with evidence of this medical condition, and Woodruff and his colleagues examined three bones from Dolly's neck and identified abnormal bone spurs that had not previously been seen that have an unusual shape and texture, and found these The spurs are in an area of ​​each bone where they were attached to air-filled structures, known as air sacs, which connect to the lungs and form part of the dinosaur's respiratory system.

A computed tomography scan of the bumps showed that they were made of abnormal bone that likely formed in response to an infection, and the scientists suggested that this may be caused by a fungal infection similar to aspergillosis, a common respiratory disease that affects birds and reptiles and can lead to infections in the bones.

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