A bone tumor found in a dinosaur could change everything we know about cancer.

Archaeological research is increasingly revealing new insights into the earliest inhabitants of planet Earth. The most recent findings were made by a group of scientists in London from Anglia Ruskin University and Imperial College.

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According to academics, traces of a tumor have been identified in the fossilized remains of a Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus. According to experts, this discovery could profoundly alter our understanding of cancer not as a modern disease, but as an evolutionary burden shared with extinct species.

This was demonstrated in a National Geographic publication, which noted that this type of discovery would reveal how extinct species could hold the biological keys to combating this ancient disease.

What else did this discovery reveal?

According to scientists, this new information presents molecular evidence embedded in the skeleton of a dinosaur that lived more than 66 million years ago. Therefore, it is highlighted that leaving the door open to the past not only allows us to study the diseases that affected prehistoric creatures, but also to draw biological lessons from how they resist or succumb to cancer.

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It's worth noting that this dinosaur was a broad-snouted herbivore that inhabited what is now Romania. The study focused primarily on its jawbone due to evidence of a benign tumor. This re-evaluation, conducted with the tools of modern science, demonstrates that cancer has left its scars even on the oldest of Earth's titans.

Thus, by using advanced paleoproteomic techniques, researchers have been able to analyze fossilized soft tissue remains, something never before seen in the history of paleontology.

This eliminates the stigma that cancer is exclusive to humans and animals, as recent research has documented benign and malignant tumors in various dinosaur species, especially hadrosaurs like Edmontosaurus. These tumors range from hemangiomas to metastatic cancer.

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