This list of pathological dinosaur specimens enumerates those fossil dinosaur specimens that preserve evidence of injury, disease, deformity or parasitic infection.
Ankylosauria Nickname Catalogue number Institution Taxon Age Unit Country Notes Images DMNH 65883 Gastonia new species
Ceratopsians Nickname Catalogue number Institution Taxon Age Unit Country Notes Images N/A CMN 41357 Canadian Museum of Nature Vagaceratops irvinensis Campanian Dinosaur Park Formation Canada A smooth depression set into a patch of wrinkly-textured bone above the right eye and the squamosal bone, probably due to advanced age. This individuals neck exhibits extensive bony growth with a "cauliflower" texture fusing the fifth through 9th vertebrae and their ribs. Rega, Holmes, and Tirabasso have hypothesized that this growth was a chondrosarcoma resulting from several osteochondromas occurring there. They also identified a benign osteoma in the fourth toe of the right hind foot. They also found lesions and bony growths deforming the animal's first right metacarpal. N/A ROM 843 Royal Ontario Museum Chasmosaurus belli Canada The skull of ROM 843 exhibits resorption of bone both near the eye-horns and on the frill, thought to be signs of aging. It also has bony growths on its fourth right metacarpal and on its eighth and ninth body ribs. However, the most important pathology are the many lesions covering the animal's thumbs. These lesions give the bone a very rough texture and deform the digits. The right thumb was the most severely deformed and is bent at a 42 degree angle, while the left thumb was bent 20 degrees away from healthy alignment. N/A TMP 79.11.9 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Centrosaurus Canada An unidentifiable skull bone from this specimen seems to have been "[d]iseased". N/A TMP 82.18.227 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Centrosaurus Canada A round exostosis formed on the shaft of this specimen's ulna. N/A TMP 85.112.39 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada One of the rearward left dorsal ribs has a false joint.
N/A TMP 85.112.52 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This animal seems to have broken the shaft of one of its middle ribs and a bony callus formed there.
N/A TMP 85.112.70 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This specimen developed a stress fracture in one of its phalanges.
N/A TMP 85.112.86 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada One of this specimen's ribs had a false joint.
N/A TMP 86.55.111 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada A rounded growth of unknown origins projects from the underside of this specimen's squamosal bone. Tanke and Rothschild failed to determine its cause, but hypothesized that it might be the result of an avulsion injury.
N/A TMP 86.55.304 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada The jugal and epijugal of this specimen bear a 2 cm wide round hole, although Tanke and Rothschild have considered that this hole may have formed as a result of non-pathological processes.
N/A TMP 87.18.27 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Centrosaurus Canada One of this specimen's vertebrae is deformed. N/A TMP 87.55.90 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada One of this animal's rear right dorsal ribs was broken twice. One of the fractures formed a false joint.
N/A TMP 87.55.101 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada The left quadrate of this animal is concave where it should be convex, bears a bone spur, and has a 2 cm long rounded pit.
N/A TMP 87.55.102 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada Four of the vertebrae near the tip of this animal's tail fused together.
N/A TMP 87.55.190 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This animal had two oval-shaped lesions on its left shoulder blade.
N/A TMP 87.55.210 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This animal broke the rear part of the left side of its frill area and lost the spike there. The frill healed in a deformed asymmetrical manner.
N/A TMP 88.55.52 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada One of this animal's neck vertebrae exhibited several pathologies. This vertebra had deformed prezygapophyses, a bone spure on its centrum and the rear surface of its end plat Tanke and Rothschild characterized as having a "'moth-eaten' appearance".
N/A TMP 88.55.90 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This animal's parietal bar was eroded, possibly due to osteomyelitis.
N/A TMP 88.55.191 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This animal had a "healing" fracture in one of its rear right dorsal ribs.
N/A TMP 89.18.108 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Centrosaurus Canada This animal broke one of its fibulae, which healed to form a false joint. N/A TMP 89.55.63 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada The neck of one of this specimen's ribs had a "healing" fracture.
N/A TMP 89.55.125 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This animal fractured the rear part of its parietal and a false joint formed there.
N/A TMP 89.55.205 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada One of this specimens left rear dorsal ribs has a false joint.
N/A TMP 89.55.188 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada The beak of this specimen is missing the rounded notch seen in most Pachyrhinosaurus. According to Tanke and Rothschild, this absence may not necessarily be due to pathology, however.
N/A TMP 89.55.269 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada The cortex of this animal's postorbital bone was deeply infolded near the animal's forehead.
N/A TMP 89.55.287 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada The neural spine of one of the vertebrae mid-length down the animal's tail was fractured. The bone around the fractured area was also eroded.
N/A TMP 89.55.363 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada A vertebra near the base of the tail had a fractured neural spine.
N/A TMP 89.55.389 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada One of this animal's left rear dorsal ribs was fractured.
N/A TMP 89.55.464 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada The underside of one of its left dorsal ribs was swollen.
N/A TMP 89.55.719 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada A bony callus grew at the site of a fractured rib in this specimen.
N/A TMP 89.55.883 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This animal had a small, round exostosis on its parietal bone.
N/A TMP 89.55.899 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This Pachyrhinosaurus had an unusually shaped nasal boss. Tanke and Rothschild could not confirm that this trait was due to pathological causes.
N/A TMP 89.55.978 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This animal had a neck vertebra whose neural arch failed to fuse to its centrum as the animal grew. Further, this vertebra's right prezygapophysis was "misshapen".
N/A TMP 89.55.1072 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This animal's right quadrate was cracked and had a pit near the bone's medial condyle.
N/A TMP 89.55.1085 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada The rear of this animal's parietal is asymmetrical and the third parietal spike is curved upwards instead of outwards.
N/A TMP 89.55.1091 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This specimen's epijugal and jugal bore a pit. Tanke and Rothschild could not confirm that this pit was pathological, however.
N/A TMP 89.55.1234 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This specimen was afflicted by several pathologies of its skull. One was a "large hole" located in below and in front of the right eye. There was also a short round growth on the left branch of the maxilla and lesions on the left squamosal.
N/A TMP 89.55.1300 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This specimen had a bony lump on the underside of one of its rear left dorsal ribs' necks.
N/A TMP 89.55.1503 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada The horns on the rear edge of the right parietal were larger and curved in a different direction than those on the left side. Tanke and Rothschild suggested that this asymmetry may just be an anatomical idiosyncrasy of this individual animal rather than a pathology.
N/A TMP 89.55.1541 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Pachyrhinosaurus n. sp. Campanian Wapiti Formation Canada This specimen had a "[s]mall rounded exostosis" on its parietal.
N/A TMP 90.18.1 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Centrosaurus Canada A thin callus of bone formed on one of this specimen's ribs. N/A TMP 91.18.18 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Centrosaurus Canada This specimen has a lesion on its left squamosal bone. N/A TMP 91.18.30 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Centrosaurus Canada The far end of one of this specimen's phalanges is covered in pits. N/A TMP 91.18.31 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Centrosaurus Canada One of this specimens rear dorsal ribs has a callus that formed at the site of a fracture. N/A TMP 91.18.77 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Centrosaurus Canada One of this specimen's rear ribs has a large false joint. Canada An isolated ceratopsian neck vertebra with healed fracture. DMNH D2596 Dalian Museum of Natural History Psittacosaurus Aptian Yixian Formation China JZMP-V-11 Psittacosaurus
Sauropodomorphs Nickname Catalogue number Institution Taxon Age Unit Country Notes Images N/A DMNH 2908 Denver Museum of Natural History Camarasaurus grandis Late Jurassic Morrison Formation United States The right humerus of this animal exhibits a spur-like lesion resulting from the healing process following a "stress injury or repetitive overexertion of the muscles resulting in an avulsion". This spur-like lesion would have caused long term fasciitis and myosistis. Bonitasaura salgadoi MCS-PV 183
Stegosaurs Nickname Catalogue number Institution Taxon Age Unit Country Notes Images N/A DMNH 2818 Denver Museum of Natural History Stegosaurus stenops Late Jurassic Morrison Formation United States N/A USNM 6646 US National Museum Stegosaurus ungulatus Late Jurassic