Senter Phil, Juengst Sara L
Department of Biological Sciences, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States of America.
Department of Anthropology, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2016 Feb 24;11(2):e0149140. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149140. eCollection 2016.
Bone abnormalities are common in theropod dinosaur skeletons, but before now no specimen was known with more than four afflicted bones of the pectoral girdle and/or forelimb. Here we describe the pathology of a specimen of the theropod dinosaur Dilophosaurus wetherilli with eight afflicted bones of the pectoral girdle and forelimb. On its left side the animal has a fractured scapula and radius and large fibriscesses in the ulna and the proximal thumb phalanx. On its right side the animal has abnormal torsion of the humeral shaft, bony tumors on the radius, a truncated distal articular surface of metacarpal III, and angular deformities of the first phalanx of the third finger. Healing and remodeling indicates that the animal survived for months and possibly years after its ailments began, but its right third finger was permanently deformed and lacked the capability of flexion. The deformities of the humerus and the right third finger may be due to developmental osteodysplasia, a condition known in extant birds but unreported in non-avian dinosaurs before now.
骨骼异常在兽脚亚目恐龙骨骼中很常见，但在此之前，尚未发现有标本的肩带和/或前肢受影响的骨骼超过四块。在此，我们描述了一具兽脚亚目恐龙威氏盗龙（Dilophosaurus wetherilli）标本的病理学情况，该标本的肩带和前肢有八块骨骼受影响。在其左侧，该动物的肩胛骨和桡骨骨折，尺骨和近端拇指指骨有大量纤维组织。在其右侧，该动物的肱骨干有异常扭转，桡骨上有骨肿瘤，第三掌骨远端关节面截断，以及第三指第一指骨的角状畸形。愈合和重塑表明，该动物在患病后存活了数月甚至数年，但其右第三指永久变形，无法弯曲。肱骨和右第三指的畸形可能是由于发育性骨发育异常，这种情况在现存鸟类中已知，但此前在非鸟类恐龙中尚未有报道。
