First Case of a Fossil Facial Tumour Discovered in a Dwarf HadrosauroidIn a study published today in

First Case of a Fossil Facial Tumour Discovered in a Dwarf HadrosauroidIn a study published today in Scientific Reports, Dumbravă et al revealed the first case of ameloblastoma within the fossil record. The benign tumour was discovered on the jaw of a sub-adult Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus, a dwarf stem hadrosaur from the Haţeg County Dinosaurs Geopark in Transylvania, Romania.The tumour itself was not cancerous and would not have led to the death of the individual by itself, but could have caused pain in the jaw hindering eating and signalled to predators that the individual was weakened as the tumour became more visible (as in the above image where the tumour can be seen to the lower right).Although this type of tumour has been seen in many modern animal groups from humans to reptiles, this is the first occurrence documented in the fossil record and reveals clues about the biology of hadrosaurs suggesting a predisposition to neoplasia pathologies already resided in the basal members of the clade.Read the open access paper here  -- source link

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