An international group of researchers, including Kate Acheson from University of Southampton in the UK, have documented a type of non-cancerous facial tumour, which is found in humans, mammals and some modern reptiles, but never before encountered in fossil animals.
"This discovery is the first ever described in the fossil record and the first to be thoroughly documented in a dwarf dinosaur," said Acheson.
"Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus is known to be close to the root of the duck-billed dinosaur family tree, and the presence of such a deformity early in their evolution provides us with further evidence that the duck-billed dinosaurs were more prone to tumours than other dinosaurs," she said.
"It was obvious that the fossil was deformed when it was found more than a decade ago but what caused the outgrowth remained unclear until now," said Zoltan Csiki-Sava from University of Bucharest in Romania.
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Researchers used Micro-CT scanning facilities and to 'peek' un-intrusively inside the peculiar Telmatosaurus jawbone.
The scans suggested that the dinosaur suffered from a condition known as an 'ameloblastoma', a tumourous, benign, non-cancerous growth known to afflict the jaws of humans and other mammals, and some modern reptiles too, researchers said.
It is unlikely that the tumour caused the dinosaur any serious pain during its early stages of development, just as in humans with the same condition, but researchers can tell from its size that this particular dinosaur died before it reached adulthood.
"We know from modern examples that predators often attack a member of the herd that looks a little different or is even slightly disabled by a disease," said Csiki-Sava.
The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.