The Healing Powers of Dinosaur Bones: Predatory Species Had Amazing Regenerative Abilities

It turns out that dinosaurs may have had some advantages that we don't. Scientists have examined the cracks, fractures and breaks in the bones of a 150 million-year-old predatory dinosaur, shedding light on its healing ability.

"Using synchrotron imaging, we were able to detect astoundingly dilute traces of chemical signatures that reveal not only the difference between normal and healed bone, but also how the damaged bone healed," said Phil Manning, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The chemistry of life leaves clues throughout our bodies in the course of our lives that can help us diagnose, treat and heal a multitude of modern-day ailments. It's remarkable that the very same chemistry that initiates the healing of bone in humans also seems to have followed a similar pathway in dinosaurs."

In this case, the researchers found evidence of trauma, sickness and subsequent signs of healing. What was more remarkable, though, was the extent to which dinosaurs could withstand massive trauma. In fact, scientists found that large injuries seemed to be mostly shrugged off by predatory dinosaurs; the fossil bones showed a multitude of grizzly healed injuries would have proven fatal to humans if not medically treated.

Bone doesn't form scar tissue like a scratch to the skin. This means that the body has to completely reform new bone following the same stages that occurred as the skeleton grew in the first place. Yet it seems that dinosaurs managed this feat to a better extent than humans today can.

"It seems dinosaurs evolved a splendid suite of defense mechanisms to help regulate the healing and repair of injuries," said Manning, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The ability to diagnose such processes some 150 million years later might well shed new light on how we can use Jurassic chemistry in the 21^st century."

The findings reveal a little bit more about some of the evolutionary advantages that dinosaurs possessed. Not only that, but the new findings could shed light on how human bones heal today.

The findings are published in the journal Interface Focus.