I closed the last post by claiming that finding the infected bone in Dolly was “a crazy lucky break”. Here’s why: {.size-large .wp-image-19753 .aligncenter loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“19753” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2022/02/19/sauro-throat-part-4-the-osteological-paradox/dolly-and-the-osteological-paradox/” orig-file=“https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/dolly-and-the-osteological-paradox.jpg” orig-size=“3000,6800” comments-opened=“1”

Naturally I was grateful when Cary invited me to be part of the team working on Dolly, the diplodocid with lesions in its neck vertebrae (Woodruff et al. 2022; see previous posts on Dolly here and here). I was also intellectually excited, not only to see air-filled bones with obvious pathologies, but also for what those pathologies could tell us about Dolly and other sauropods. That’s the part of our new paper I want to unpack in this post.

Dolly the dinosaur - pathological vertebrae by WitmerLab at Ohio University 3D Navigation basics All controls Orbit around Left click + drag or One finger drag (touch) Zoom Double click on model or scroll anywhere or Pinch (touch) Pan Right click + drag or Two fingers drag (touch) Orbit navigation Move camera: 1-finger drag or Left Mouse Button

I was at the SVP meeting in Albuquerque in 2018 when Cary Woodruff called me over and said he had something cool to show me. “Something cool” turned out to be photos of infected sauropod vertebrae from the Morrison Formation of Montana. Specifically, some gross, cauliflower-looking bony lesions bubbling up in the air spaces on the sides of the vertebrae.