Prehistoric Trauma: Insane Injuries That Dinosaurs Survived

Dinosaurs were built to take punishment, and their injuries ranged from fractured ribs to broken necks. The Mesozoic included the largest terrestrial predators ever, the megatheropods, as well as the sauropods, which were an order of magnitude larger than most elephants. In such a dangerous, titan-filled world, injuries were inevitable. This video analyzes wounds that we know dinosaurs healed from based on bone regrowth and explores what that teaches us about dinosaur immune systems, behavior, and ecology.

Thumbnail art by kepyle2055

00:00 Life Is Pain
01:05 Honorable Mentions
02:05 The Charlie Bit Me Tier
06:16 The Average Hockey Game Tier
11:54 The I Should Be Dead Tier


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[TheVividen]

REFERENCES

[arturleperoke]

Doctor:"Where exactly does it hurt?"
Allosaurus: "Yes"

[longerthanyouthink]

Stan got his brain case bitten into by another T.Rex, getting his frickin' brain matter exposed to the teeth of the most powerful carnivore to ever walk the Earth, and he _lived to tell the tale._ That's some MAD survivability

[ams]

Heard Allosaurus fragilis was named like that because of the many injured fossil individuals they found, but these guys were anything but fragile, they were true warriors able to survive the unimaginable.

[smitabhmoitra]

I always say that Triceratops had two swords, a shield and a pair of garden shears for a face... I except some crazy stuff between them and T.rexes

[GODEYE]

The level of damage Dinos could take and live boggles the mind. And Rex seemed to take that to 11

[HolyCanolei]

If you want some wild stuff, look up the Gorgosaurus “Ruth”. It had a fractured lower leg bone, damaged lower jaw, infected breast/arm bone, and multiple fractures in the ribs and other bones, likely caused by falls. Investigation of the brain case indicated that the animal had abnormal growths that were likely the result of a possibly cancerous tumor that impaired her coordination.

[BeegRanho]

Allosaurus: i will eat you
Stegosaurus: thagomizer?
Allosaurus: ..?
Stegosaurus: THAGOMIZE DEEZ NUTS

[Mikailodon]

If you think Sue didn’t suffer that much, it also had what seems to be a horrifying disease called trichomonosis, which is found on today’s birds and is caused by the trichomonad parasite. And let me tell you, it’s not just horrifying from the inside, but also the outside with the swelling on the head. Dinosaurs were really suffering a lot these days…

Also I was expecting that nutshot Allosaurus.

[JackSpillane-md]

Oh my gosh I've actually seen Y. rex before. I was at Houston one time and I visited their museum. I remember being really confused when I saw the T. rex was missing its tail, and I was having a really hard time trying to imagine it walking without it's tail. I kind of thought it had It's tail removed after it had died by a scavenger. But the fact there's evidence that the T. rex lost its tail while it was alive and it survived, just made the species a whole lot cooler.

[gladiolus]

You know it's going to be gruesome when fractured ribs are featured on the least painful cathegory.

Also, R.I.P Big Al, gone but never forgotten :'(

[tec-jones]

How about ROM 768, the holotype of Parasaurolophus walkeri? I've seen a recent study that showed it had a large object (likely a tree or a rock) fall on it when it was younger, breaking several neck vertebrae and fracturing the ribs. It healed, survived, and lived with the damage for years! Hadrosaurs were beasts when it came to healing.

[headwreak]

This is why Path of titans needs to add so much more than just death scars on the skin, we need broken horns, ripped off arms and even like broken plates on the Stegos who survived intense battles-

[JohnSmith]

Big Al was a FUCKING unit. Loved watching the documentary as a kid. Cried and became my boy after learning his story.

[adamtruong]

My introduction to the healing power of Dinosaurs was in Allosaurus in Planet: Dinosaur, Dinosaur Revolution, and Walking With Dinosaurs w/ Big Al.

I though those cases were insane, but Stan is something else entirely. The resilience in these animals needs to be showed more.

[SlothOfTheSea]

“Nah, I’d survive.” -Allosaurus.

Jokes aside, Paleopathology is, in all honesty, badass.

Also, post-edit: Even I didn’t know about most of these examples. A Pachyrhinosaurus casually chilling with half of a face, or Wyrex living without a tail. Archosaurs are just built different.

[Vallibonavenitrix]

That Pachyrhinosaurus with its faced teared off is the most metal thing ever, Thank you for providing me with new paleoart ideas!

[Intrusion]

Imagine being a daspletosaurus, gorgosaurus or teratophoneus AND SEE A PACHYRHINOSAURUS WITH HALF ITS FACE COMPLETELY GONE
Edit:nom look im famous

[williamking]

Man, Dilophosaurus, and Allosaurus took the punches and kept rolling. There are so many wounds from each other and other dinos. Dinosaur, in general, seems to be quite tough.

[solar]

Allosaurus by like: "I'm not locked in here with you, You are locked in here with me"

Alr.. but jokes a side The fact this theropod was able to not only survive but thrive as a species in the enviroment full of other amazing creatures such as Stegosaurus, Torvosaurus, Saurophagnax and a huge number of titan sized sauropods in hard dry season conditions will always make him in my eyes the most goated Dinosaurs ever..