City Room™ - Science - T-Rex Named Sue No Match for Microscopic Parasite

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T-Rex Named Sue No Match for Microscopic Parasite
Produced by Gabriel Spitzer on Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Rendering of a T-Rex with lesions likely caused by Trichamonosis-like disease. (Renderings by Chris Glen, courtesy of University of Wisconsin)

Chicago’s most famous prehistoric resident probably didn’t die in epic battle with another dinosaur. New research shows the likely culprit was much smaller.

The mighty T-Rex named Sue was no match for a microscopic organism called Trichomonas gallinae. That’s according to research out today in the journal, PLoS ONE. Ewan Wolff of the University of Wisconsin examined Sue’s skeleton at the Field Museum of Natural History, along with other T-Rexes.

WOLFF: At least popularly, it’s hard to imagine that it could have died from something so small.

Sue’s death was once imagined to have been much more dramatic. Holes in her jaw were thought to be battle wounds from another T-Rex. In fact, says Wolff, they’re probably from lesions caused by the parasite. Sue’s throat would have swollen up, making it harder to eat.

WOLFF: And so basically the death would be by the animal slowly succumbing to starvation.

Wolff says strains of the same parasite still affect Sue’s descendents. They cause the same holes in the jaws of birds as they likely did in dinosaurs.