Different types of bone fractures in dinosaur fossils

ABSTRACT

As more new fossils are discovered, a great number of extraordinary specimens have greatly enhanced our understanding of bone features in dinosaurs. The fracture patterns of dinosaur bones are distinctive and easily identifiable, and thus have received increasing attention. Some pioneering modern medical studies have categorised two types of bone fractures, including traumatic (a broken bone caused by an injury) and pathologic (a broken bone caused by a disease) fractures. Here, we investigated two fossil specimens collected from Yangchuanosaurus hepingensis and Gigantospinosaurus sichuanensis, respectively, which were both uncovered in the Sichuan Basin, southwestern China. These specimens were subjected to osteological examination, CT scanning and spectral data analysis. Thus, multiple lines of evidence indicate that the bone fracture in the two dinosaurs is attributed to different factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Dinosaurs
• bone fracture
• traumatic
• pathological
• CT scan

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the assistance and help of the following people in the production of this research: Relevant doctors from Zigong First People’s Hospital. Peng Zhi of kunming medical university provided Pathological explain. HUANG Da-xi, JIANG Shan, HU Xiao-dong, CHEN Li provided valuable field geological materials. LING Man, LUO Shu drew the illustrations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) [No. 183109], and the Research Project of Sichuan Provincial Department of Land and Resources [No. KJ-2017-11].