Listen, the dinosaur is coughing!

Author: Wen Lele

Dolly the Dinosaur Photo credit: Woodruff, Corbin Rainbolt

The fossil record shows that dinosaurs suffered from broken bones, osteoarthritis and even cancer, but now, paleontologists have discovered for the first time that dinosaurs also coughed.

The severe respiratory disease was detectable because it left traces in the bones of animals that had become fossilized.

The disease can cause sneezing, coughing, fever and premature death. The results were published in Scientific Reports on February 10.

MOR 7029, or the "Dolly" specimen as paleontologists call it, dates back to the Late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago.

Scientists are still uncovering new information about this young Diplodocus, a long-necked, herbivorous dinosaur about 18 meters long that was discovered in Montana, USA in 1990.

Cary Woodruff of the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Montana and colleagues discovered the unusual bumps in three of the dinosaur's neck bones.

These areas of bony growth may be connected to alveolar sacs, which are thought to be part of the dinosaur's respiratory system, similar to the respiratory system of modern birds. CT scans of the fossils showed that the protrusions were likely formed by infections in the alveolar sacs.

Woodruff said much evidence of dinosaurs' health is lost in the fossilization process, so the team compared the bony protuberances to those found in modern birds and concluded they were most likely evidence of a fungal disease like aspergillosis, a common respiratory illness, that Dolly had contracted.

"We can't say whether Dolly died one day because she fell over or because she was too sick and weak to be targeted by a predator," Woodruff said. "But I do believe that this infection eventually led to her death in some way."

Dolly died at age 15, twice as long as dinosaurs are generally thought to have lived. She would have developed symptoms of a cold or pneumonia similar to humans: sneezing, coughing, runny nose and fever.

“I think it’s really cool that you can hold Dolly’s bones in your hands and know that 150 million years ago, dinosaurs felt sick just as badly as you do,” Woodruff said.