Tyrannosaurus rex and its close relatives suffered from the potentially life-threatening disease trichomonosis, which is still carried by pigeons, a study published Wednesday showed. Some of the world's most famous T.rex specimens, such as "Sue" at the Field Museum in Chicago and the specimen at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, have holes in the lower jaw, which is a classic symptom of trichomonosis, the study by a team of U.S. and Australian researchers showed.

"The holes in tyrannosaur jaws occur in exactly the same place as in modern birds with trichomonosis," said Ewan Wolff, a paleontologist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison who worked on the study. "The shape of the holes and the way that they merge into the surrounding bone is very similar in both animals," Wolff said.

Trichomonosis is carried mainly by pigeons these days, but they are generally immune to the disease. Birds of prey are particularly susceptible to trichomonosis if they eat infected pigeons.

Paleontologists previously thought the holes in T.rex were caused by tooth gouges or bacterial infections, but according to the study, which was published in the peer-reviewed open-access PLoS ONE, the position and nature of the holes indicate that the dinosaur had a trichomonosis-type disease.

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Image Credit: David Monniaux