Science / Medicine : Research Finds Cancer Afflicted Allosaurus

Cancer appears to have stricken even dinosaurs, Utah scientists said last week. Fossil remains analyzed at Brigham Young University and at the Naval Hospital in San Diego show that a large, meat-eating dinosaur called an allosaurus apparently suffered from chondrosarcoma, a cancerous bone disease.

Scientists initially thought a cauliflower-like growth found in a limb bone of the allosaurus was a non-cancerous cartilage tumor. A detailed examination, however, revealed that the growth was cancerous and may have led to the animal’s death.

The allosaurus bone was found in the Dry Mesa quarry in western Colorado by Brigham Young paleontologist Ken Stadtman. The allosaurus is believed to have died about 140 million years ago, during the Jurassic Era when dinosaurs dominated the planet. Allosauruses typically weighed about 2 tons and were about 35 feet long.