What Caused Holes in Sue the T. Rex’s Jawbone? Scientists Are Stumped

The mounted fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex known as Sue is pictured at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, US, in this undated handout image obtained by Reuters on September 30, 2022. (Lucy Hewett, Field Museum/Handout via Reuters)
The mounted fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex known as Sue is pictured at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, US, in this undated handout image obtained by Reuters on September 30, 2022. (Lucy Hewett, Field Museum/Handout via Reuters)
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What Caused Holes in Sue the T. Rex’s Jawbone? Scientists Are Stumped

The mounted fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex known as Sue is pictured at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, US, in this undated handout image obtained by Reuters on September 30, 2022. (Lucy Hewett, Field Museum/Handout via Reuters)
The mounted fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex known as Sue is pictured at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, US, in this undated handout image obtained by Reuters on September 30, 2022. (Lucy Hewett, Field Museum/Handout via Reuters)

Sue, the biggest and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever unearthed, no doubt was a fearsome beast when this predator prowled what is now South Dakota about 67 million years ago at the twilight of the age of dinosaurs.

But even this huge dinosaur, whose fossils are displayed at the Field Museum in Chicago, was not invulnerable. A prime example of this is the series of circular holes in Sue's jawbone that continue to baffle scientists. New research seeking an explanation for these holes has managed to rule out one major hypothesis, though the answer remains elusive.

Researchers said a close examination of the eight holes - some the diameter of a golf ball - on the back half of Sue's left lower jawbone, or mandible, determined that they were not caused by a type of microbial infection as some experts had proposed.

The holes were found to differ from bone damage caused by such an infection, said Bruce Rothschild, a medical doctor and research associate at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, lead author of the study published this week in the journal Cretaceous Research.

Sue, measuring 40-1/2 feet long (12.3 meters), represents one of the world's best-known dinosaur fossils. Tyrannosaurus was one of the largest land predators ever, inhabiting western North America at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

Field Museum paleontologist and study co-author Jingmai O'Connor noted that about 15% of all known T. rex specimens have holes similar to Sue's.

The researchers explored whether the holes had been caused by an infection involving microbes called protozoans. One common protozoan disease known to occur in birds, which evolved from feathered dinosaurs, as well as in people is called trichomoniasis, caused by a parasitic protozoan. Trichomoniasis in people, though not birds, is a sexually transmitted disease.

O'Connor noted that one falcon diagnosed with trichomoniasis had shown damage in its jaw, but it differed from Sue's holes.

The bone around Sue's holes showed signs of healing, indicating that whatever caused them did not kill the animal. Similarities were observed between Sue's healing and the healed breaks in other fossilized bones as well as healing bone seen around holes made in the skulls of ancient Inca people in Peru.

The cause of Sue's holes remains a puzzle.

Rothschild proposed the possibility of claw damage during mating, or as he put it: "mounting from back or top with claws striking the posterior mandible." Sue has a feminine name - honoring the woman who discovered the fossils in 1990 - but the dinosaur's sex is unknown.

"I honestly have no clue what formed them," O'Connor said. "I really do not think they are bite marks or claw marks."

"A pathology that commonly affected T. rex individuals, that caused large holes to open up in the jawbone but only in the back of the jawbone, but didn't kill the T. rex because the holes started to heal, at least in Sue - it's weird," O'Connor added. "So many hypotheses have been put forth only to be shot done. It's a good paleontology mystery - my favorite."

The holes were not the only examples of damage endured by Sue, a dinosaur that lived about 33 years.

"Sue was quite old when it died and it shows numerous injuries and pathologies," O'Connor said. "It had gout in its hands. It had fallen on its right side, busting its ribs - they healed, though. It had torn a ligament in the right arm - healing. It had a horrible bone infection in its left leg. It had arthritis in its tail. It would not have been a happy camper the last year of its life."



French Scientists Find New Blood Type in Guadeloupe Woman

A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type. (AFP)
A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type. (AFP)
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French Scientists Find New Blood Type in Guadeloupe Woman

A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type. (AFP)
A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type. (AFP)

A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type, dubbed "Gwada negative," France's blood supply agency has announced.

The announcement was made 15 years after researchers received a blood sample from a patient who was undergoing routine tests ahead of surgery, the French Blood Establishment (EFS) said on Friday.

"The EFS has just discovered the 48th blood group system in the world!" the agency said in a statement on social network LinkedIn.

"This discovery was officially recognized in early June in Milan by the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT)."

The scientific association had until now recognized 47 blood group systems.

Thierry Peyrard, a medical biologist at the EFS involved in the discovery, told AFP that a "very unusual" antibody was first found in the patient in 2011.

However, resources at the time did not allow for further research, he added.

Scientists were finally able to unravel the mystery in 2019 thanks to "high-throughput DNA sequencing", which highlighted a genetic mutation, Peyrard said.

The patient, who was 54 at the time and lived in Paris, was undergoing routine tests before surgery when the unknown antibody was detected, Peyrard said.

This woman "is undoubtedly the only known case in the world," said the expert.

"She is the only person in the world who is compatible with herself," he said.

Peyrard said the woman inherited the blood type from her father and mother, who each had the mutated gene.

The name "Gwada negative", which refers to the patient's origins and "sounds good in all languages", has been popular with the experts, said Peyrard.

The ABO blood group system was first discovered in the early 1900s. Thanks to DNA sequencing, the discovery of new blood groups has accelerated in recent years.

Peyrard and colleagues are now hoping to find other people with the same blood group.

"Discovering new blood groups means offering patients with rare blood types a better level of care," the EFS said.