As originally reported in CNN, a duck billed dinosaur of a time long before humanity has been identified to have suffered from the same rare disease found in children today. The peculiar marks left by Langerhans cell histiocytosis, LCH, helped the paleontologists’ identify the disease, a find rarely possible for dinosaurs because of the difficulty to distinguish between diseases that leave similar markers. This disease, which has never before seen in dinosaurs, was found in a creature whose life dates back an incredible 66 million years.
Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis
Langerhans cell histiocytosis or LCH is a rare disease that causes inflammation due to an excess of white blood cells know as Langerhans cells. While these cells are usually beneficial to combating infection, this disease causes them to build up into tumors which can be sudden and painful, but can also go away without treatment. While the tumors usually start in specific zones of the body, they can then spread to many other parts of the body such as the bones or vital organs. Other symptoms may include rashes, lumps, skin abnormalities, breathing issues, and diarrhea. While there is not a cure, 90% of patients survive the disease.
Diagnosing The Dinosaur
The researchers noticed the strange marks on parts of the tail, which had lesions matching human corpses used for comparison. They attribute their ability to specifically identify the disease to new scanning technology that can analyze the bones at a high resolution. Dr. Hila May, head of the Biohistory and Evolutionary Medicine Laboratory at Tel-Aviv University describes that they were able to “reconstruct the overgrowth as well as the blood vessels that fed it.”
Finding evidence of a disease that dates back this far in history is extremely interesting for evolutionary medicine, which studies the progression of diseases over history to find how changes unraveled. Many diseases do not manifest on bones or are not able to be definitively named within a wider categories of possibilities. The further back one can locate the disease in history, the wider the range of progression or manifestation of the disease is possible. By seeing how the disease manifests on an ancient being, researchers can zero in on commonality that remains in the disease today. This gives light to how the disease has been able to persist as well, and thus may point to the crucial mechanisms of the disease that could reverse it or give ideas for how it could be treated.
