一種罕見的、隱藏在古代恐龍尾巴中的人類疾病，至今仍困擾著我們

一種罕見的、隱藏在古代恐龍尾巴中的人類疾病，至今仍困擾著我們

It lived in a place we now call Alberta, Canada, but this was in an ancient time, long before any names existed.

它生活在一個我們現(xiàn)在稱為加拿大亞伯達(dá)的地方，但那是在一個古老的時代，在任何名字出現(xiàn)之前很久。

It was a young hadrosaur, a giant 'duck-billed' herbivore, and something was wrong with it. We don't know what killed this dinosaur, but at some point, it swished its long, heavy tail for the last time, lay down on the prairie, and died.

這是一只年輕的鴨嘴龍，一種巨大的“鴨嘴獸”食草動物，它有點(diǎn)不對勁。我們不知道是什么殺死了這只恐龍，但在某個時刻，它最后一次擺動它又長又重的尾巴，躺在草原上死了。

Today – at least 66 million years later – all that is known to remain of this magnificent creature are 11 fossilised bone segments from that ancient tail, and scientists have discovered something pretty incredible embedded inside them.

今天，至少6600萬年過去了，我們所知道的這一偉大生物的遺跡只有11塊來自古代尾巴的骨頭碎片，科學(xué)家們在這些化石中發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些令人難以置信的東西。

Of the 11 pieces of tail vertebrae recovered, eight segments exhibited various pathological conditions, with some featuring "unusual lesions" never before seen in dinosaurs.

在恢復(fù)的11塊尾椎中，有8塊表現(xiàn)出不同的病理狀態(tài)，其中一些具有恐龍從未見過的“異常病變”。

Now, many millions of years after the hadrosaur's death, the nature of its strange affliction has finally been diagnosed.

如今，在鴨嘴龍死亡數(shù)百萬年后，這種奇怪的折磨終于被診斷出來。

There were large cavities in two of the vertebrae segments, explains evolutionary anatomist Hila May from Tel Aviv University in Israel.

來自以色列特拉維夫大學(xué)的進(jìn)化解剖學(xué)家Hila May解釋說:“在兩塊椎骨中有兩個大的空腔。”

They were extremely similar to the cavities produced by tumours associated with the rare disease Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) that still exists today in humans.

“它們與罕見的朗格漢斯細(xì)胞組織細(xì)胞增生癥(LCH)相關(guān)的腫瘤產(chǎn)生的空洞極為相似，這種疾病至今仍在人類中存在。”

In a new study, an international team used micro-CT scanning to investigate these mysterious cavities in extremely fine detail.

在一項(xiàng)新的研究中，一個國際研究小組使用微ct掃描技術(shù)對這些神秘的空洞進(jìn)行了極其細(xì)致的研究。

The analysis confirmed the researchers' suspicions, indicating that this rare form of cancer has existed on Earth for at least 66 million years, when the Late Cretaceous epoch ended.

分析證實(shí)了研究人員的猜測，表明這種罕見的癌癥在地球上至少存在了6600萬年，也就是白堊紀(jì)末期。

We scanned the dinosaur vertebrae and created a computerised 3D reconstruction of the tumour and the blood vessels that fed it, May says.

梅說:“我們掃描了恐龍的椎骨，然后用計(jì)算機(jī)對腫瘤和滋養(yǎng)它的血管進(jìn)行了三維重建。”

The micro and macro analyses confirmed that it was, in fact, LCH. This is the first time this disease has been identified in a dinosaur.

“微觀和宏觀分析證實(shí)，它實(shí)際上是LCH。這是首次在恐龍身上發(fā)現(xiàn)這種疾病。”

As the researchers explain in their study, this isn't the first time LCH has been determined in other kinds of animals, with previous research suggesting similar pathology in tree shrews and tigers.

正如研究人員在他們的研究中解釋的那樣，這不是第一次在其他動物身上發(fā)現(xiàn)LCH，之前的研究表明樹鼩和老虎也有類似的病理現(xiàn)象。

But we've never seen it in the fossil record before – nor had the means of identifying it like this.

但我們以前從未在化石記錄中見過它——也沒有像這樣識別它的方法。

Langerhans cell histiocytosis is a rare kind of cancer where excess immune system cells build up, forming tumours called granulomas. The disease usually affects young children, and while the vast majority of patients who experience LCH recover, the condition causes pain and swelling.

朗格漢斯細(xì)胞組織細(xì)胞增多癥是一種罕見的癌癥，在這種癌癥中，過多的免疫系統(tǒng)細(xì)胞積聚起來，形成被稱為肉芽腫的腫瘤。這種疾病通常發(fā)生在兒童身上，當(dāng)絕大多數(shù)LCH患者康復(fù)后，會引起疼痛和腫脹。

The exact causes of LCH remain a matter of debate, but with every new piece of evidence we find, we learn more the pathogenesis of this rare, and seemingly very ancient disease.

LCH的確切病因仍是一個有爭議的問題，但隨著我們發(fā)現(xiàn)的每一項(xiàng)新證據(jù)，我們對這種罕見的、似乎非常古老的疾病的發(fā)病機(jī)制有了更多的了解。

Even knowing a long-gone dinosaur was afflicted by it over 60 million years ago could be important for finding a treatment, researchers say.

研究人員表示，即使知道6000萬年前一種早已滅絕的恐龍?jiān)艿竭@種疾病的折磨，對找到治療方法也很重要。

Ultimately, the goal of such studies is to understand the real cause of these illnesses and what evolutionary mechanisms allowed them to develop and survive, palaeopathologist Israel Hershkovitz from Tel Aviv University, who assisted in the study, told Haaretz.

來自特拉維夫大學(xué)的古病理學(xué)家Israel Hershkovitz協(xié)助了這項(xiàng)研究，他告訴《國土報(bào)》:“最終，這類研究的目的是了解這些疾病的真正原因，以及是什么進(jìn)化機(jī)制使它們得以發(fā)展和存活。”

Perhaps if we understand a disease's underlying mechanisms we can treat its causes more effectively, instead of focusing on the symptoms, as modern medicine tends to do.

“也許，如果我們了解了一種疾病的潛在機(jī)制，我們就能更有效地治療其病因，而不是像現(xiàn)代醫(yī)學(xué)那樣關(guān)注癥狀。”

The findings are reported in Scientific Reports.

研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在《科學(xué)報(bào)告》上。