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Shocking Discovery: Cretaceous Dinosaur Had Tumor Similar to Those Affecting Humans Today. What Does This Reveal About Cancer?
A benign tumor found in a Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus, a dinosaur that lived about 66 million years ago, promises to change everything we know about the history of cancer and its relationship with modern living beings. The finding, described in a recent British study, sheds new light on how serious diseases affected extinct creatures.
The tumor, an ameloblastoma (common in the jaws of humans), was discovered by researchers from Imperial College London and Anglia Ruskin University. According to Biancastella Cereser, co-author of the study, “we wanted to understand if there were parallels between the dinosaur’s tumor and human cancers.” This shows that cancer is not an exclusively human problem: it existed during the age of dinosaurs.
Impact on Evolutionary Biology
This finding opens a new field of study called comparative paleooncology, which investigates how diseases like cancer evolved in different species. Advanced paleoproteomics techniques allowed for the analysis of fossilized soft tissues, offering insights into proteins that can last for millions of years. Justin Stebbing, a researcher at Anglia Ruskin, stated that “these analyses can provide direct benefits for modern medicine.”
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The discovery also suggests that dinosaurs may have developed mechanisms similar to those of large animals today, such as elephants (which have multiple copies of the tumor suppressor gene TP53) and whales (which possess highly efficient DNA repair). Did dinosaurs have their own ways of combating tumors? This is a question that fascinates scientists and could lead to new research.
Conservation and New Discoveries
Another point raised is the importance of fossil conservation. Stebbing emphasizes that “preserving fossils with soft tissues is crucial for future molecular research.” The Telmatosaurus, found in the Hațeg Basin in Romania, is now seen as a symbol of how cancer has always been present in nature.
This research reinforces that cancer is not a “modern disease,” but rather an ancient evolutionary challenge. By understanding how ancient species dealt with it, we may inspire strategies to treat the disease today. The study of cancer in dinosaurs may even help explain how large organisms managed to live so long without being overwhelmed by tumors.
