T. Rex Killed By Parasite

Throat infection may have brought down T. rex

Wolff thinks the parasite, a protozoan named Trichomonas gallinae, settled in the back of Sue's throat, and in nine other Tyrannosaurs he studied with similar holes. The parasite caused inflammation that eventually damaged the jawbone, he theorized.

As the infection worsened, the throat swelled to a point that "the esophagus gets narrower and narrower," Wolff said. "Death is by starvation.""People have speculated in the past about the holes in the jaw," said Mark Goodwin, a paleontologist at UC Berkeley. "The strength of this paper is that it presents a hypothesis and tests it."