Paleopathology Is Such A Cool Field! One Of My Favorite Examples Is Dolly, A Sauropod Who Had A Respiratory

Paleopathology is such a cool field! One of my favorite examples is Dolly, a sauropod who had a respiratory infection severe enough to cause lesions on some of its vertebrae.

The pattern of the lesions is super interesting, and a really neat example of the similarities between sauropod and bird respiratory systems!

Do we have any records of fossil dinosaurs afflicted with illnesses? I guess fossils wouldn't really make it easy to preserve dinos that died from proto-flu, but what about stuff like cancers or malformations?

We do actually! Paleopathology is a whole field and there are tons of specimens that showcase signs of illnesses and injuries! It's really cool actually. there are so many examples that I can't even find the one I wanted to share as a prime one (it was an ornithopod that had a whole cancer study done, can't find it anywhere)

but infections were common and there's tons of studies about the signs of those in fossils as well!

Had a blast working on Larry the velociraptor on stream tonight! Now that he’s ready for fur and feathers, I did some very rough concept sketches for some color ideas. Please let me know which ones you like best or suggest your own!

portrait of a resting Dilophosaurus, up close n personal

A herd of dreadnoughtus taking a stroll.

I apologize for the lack of streams recently! Starting Ochem + Physics + a new job at the same time might not have been my finest plan. I'm finally getting some sense of a regular schedule, so hopefully, weekend nights will be free enough for me to stream again!

and before you say any of these aren't scary: trust me, I have receipts

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