My Jurassic Park - Injured, Predation or Diseased Dinosaur Bones

[Troodon]

Thought our members might be interested in seeing the few bones in my collection that have some sort of paleopathological features on it. Most of the time when someone is showing us a bone we are looking at some perdation due to bites and wonder if its real. Hopfully that is not the case here.

Let me begin by suggesting a good book on the subject Mesozic Vertebrate Life by Tanke, Carpenter and Skrepnick. It covers many areas but several chapters on this subject.

What I would like to do is to show you my specimens but ask anyone to post Dinosaur specimens that they may have in their collection that have some features on it. Always interested in seeing other specimens and not has much technical papers.

Most of what I'm describing is my guess or no guess, so other opinions are always welcomed

Allosaurus sp.

To me this looks like bad case of arthritis around the bone. The bone should be smooth. Wonder if they took asprin

Struthiomimus sp.

I'm not sure what to say on this Tibia. There is a 5 inch wide bulge in the middle of the bone some type of growth or infection? Had to be painful. Second photo is comparison with a normal bone.

Theropod indet.

A carpal of a theropod with some lesion or scar around the bone. May be a healing scar due to an injury.

A toe bone with what looks a theropod bite that has displaced some bone. Looks like some healing occured so it was alive, ouch!

Anzu wyliei

A toe bone with what looks like a postmortem bite mark. Its shape says Crocodile. Remember the bone is hollow so it would not take much to cause the depression.

Edmontosaurus annectens

A huge 5" across ungal from Baker Montana. My guess is disease but could be has a result of bite.

This is what a normal one should be smooth both sides.

[JohnBrewer]

Really interesting post, thanks for sharing. I can see that a great collection can be made from pathological fossils here if you have knowledge and patience to look for the unusual.

[Susan from PA]

Awesome post as usual! . I don't know if this counts, but I'll try to contribute. Here are a pair of Pachycephalosaur spikes, that seem to be broken at the distal tips, and have undergone some type of pathology or regrowth.

Edited July 12, 2016 by Susan from PA

[Troodon]

Thanks for the add, perfect and very cool. I think this would be a nice addition to the ROM's study.

[Susan from PA]

Thanks for the add, perfect and very cool. I think this would be a nice addition to the ROM's study.

Yes indeed! That's where it will be headed as soon as Dr. Evans returns my email on where to send it! .

[ynot]

Another wonderful Thread. looking forward to seeing more!!

Tony

[Troodon]

Thanks Tony and looking forward to seeing additional bones

[ynot]

I would like to add to this, but the only dino piece that I have is the tooth I got from fossildudeco, in the "rolling auction" that sixgill pete started.

Tony

[Troodon]

Did forget my Chasmosaurinae skull that has what appears to be a healed puncture wound in the top of the skull. No other signs of predation or other..

This was previously posted but fits this topic.

[Troodon]

I would like to add to this, but the only dino piece that I have is the tooth I got from fossildudeco, in the "rolling auction" that sixgill pete started.

Tony

You now can consider yourself a complete collector

[ynot]

You now can consider yourself a complete collector

I am a "collected by Me" collector, so not a "complete collector" until I get to dig it out myself.

Finding dino material is one of the few things left on My "bucket list" (as a kid I called it a hit list.)

I did the auction to support the Fossil Forum!

Tony

[HamptonsDoc]

Cool stuff! Thanks for sharing!

[Troodon]

Thanks HamptonsDoc

Here is a vertebra from the Hell Creek Hadrosaur Edmontosaurus with what looks like a healed injury to its neural spine or is it an infection?

[Nimravis]

Great fossils- thanks for the post.

[cheney416]

Oh cool fossils!

[Troodon]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments.

[sandgroper]

Great fossils with intriguing backgrounds, your threads are always so interesting.

[Troodon]

I'm always looking for unusual dinosaur bones and happen to come across this one from the Hell Creek Formation, it's a fractured metatarsal.  Hard to say when the fracture occurred but its all in one piece and I do not see any evidence of regrowth but there is still matrix around some of the cracks.   It does not look like a predation fracture, no signs of bite marks.   A result of an accident, a fight who knows or did it just occurred during the fossilization process? It was fresh when it occurred. 

 

The bone compares very well from two associated sets of adult tarsals I have from Anzu wyliei so that's who I'm thinking its from.  

 

 

 

Here is a comparison against an almost identical one without the fracture

 

 

 

 

 

[Susan from PA]

Very interesting specimen!  It turned out beautiful!  

[Troodon]

A Struthiomimus claw is added to the list with a large spur on its ventral surface.  Difficult to say how well this animal was able to run and forage for food or was it part of its demise?

 

[Troodon]

An Indeterminate Sauropod Tooth with what appears to be some abnormality around the tip.  Cannot determine if those are bite marks or disease or ?  The dimples are a mystery

 

[JohnBrewer]

5 hours ago, Troodon said:

An Indeterminate Sauropod Tooth with what appears to be some abnormality around the tip.  Cannot determine if those are bite marks or disease or ?

 

Maybe an issue when erupting if an overlying tooth wasn’t ejected? Cool tooth.

 

 

 

Almost as cool as mine  

[Troodon]

16 minutes ago, JohnBrewer said:

Maybe an issue when erupting if an overlying tooth wasn’t ejected? Cool tooth.

 

Almost as cool as mine  

Nope not as cool as yours but the dimples in the crown are the mystery

[JohnBrewer]

Just wondered if the dimples were formed before the dentine hardened while forming waaay before eruption. Not that I know how teeth form. 

[Troodon]

Interesting Vertebra from an Edmontosaurus that I recently found.   Not sure about the pathology, hole in center and nubs as processes but its interesting and cool.

 

 

A Struthiomimus vertebra with a possible bite indentation in its side.  Looks like Crock with the curvature of the inside impression.