# Did dinosaurs get cancer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2001, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dinosaurs-get-cancer/72790 "2001-07-17T13:33:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mothman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@mothman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mothman)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dinosaurs-get-cancer/72790/1 "2001-07-17T13:33:33Z")
Did/could dinosaurs get cancer? ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dinosaurs-get-cancer/72790/2 "2001-07-17T13:52:20Z")
Yes, indeed. Fossilized dinosaur skeletons have been found showing clear evidenceof osteosarcomas (bone cancers). There are also skulls that show evidence consistent with myeloma, although in this case the diagnosis is much more equivocal. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dinosaurs-get-cancer/72790/3 "2001-07-17T13:56:20Z")
I have no idea and I’m not sure anyone ever could know unless it was some form of bone cancer that would be apparent in a fossil. That said IIRC sharks do not get cancer of any sort and as such are a subject for research to see why not. Given that sharks were hanging about with the dinosaurs that may constitute a tiny bit of anecdotal evidence that dinosaurs did not get cancer (I realize that this is in no way convincing evidence…just a nudge in that direction). More appropriately would be to know if alligators and/or crocodiles get cancer since they are among the only living descendants of dinosaurs that I know of. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dinosaurs-get-cancer/72790/4 "2001-07-17T14:00:13Z")
In light of **Akatsukami’s** post my post is mostly meaningless. (In my defense that post wasn’t there when I started writing but it doesn’t change the end result…) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dinosaurs-get-cancer/72790/5 "2001-07-17T14:16:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Whack-a-Mole \* > \*\*More appropriately would be to know if alligators and/or crocodiles get cancer since they are among the only living descendants of dinosaurs that I know of. \*\* That would be birds, btw…the ancestors of alligators and crocodiles split off from the tree that produced dinosaurs before dinosaurs got there. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dinosaurs-get-cancer/72790/6 "2001-07-17T17:51:11Z")
I would be surprised if there were any DNA-based life that didn’t get cancer _sometimes_. The “sharks don’t get cancer” thing was disproved, right? ---
**Author:** ![Gaspode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gaspode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaspode)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dinosaurs-get-cancer/72790/7 "2001-07-17T22:19:45Z")
> [@](#): > > The “sharks don’t get cancer” thing was disproved, right? Not only disproved, there was never any evidence it was true. Ever since people have been bothering to examine sharks in detail they knew they developed cancers. The “sharks don’t get cancer” line was popularised in the late eighties/early nineties by witch-doctors trying to sell people shark cartilage as a cancer preventative. Even by that stage it was well known that sharks developed tumours. Legitimate medical scientists had succeded in extracting anti-cancer drugs from shark cartilage. These killed tumours by cutting off the blood supply but they needed to be injected, and no legitimate authority had suggested that sharks were immune to cancer. Since then there have been examples found of sharks with cancer of the cartilage. So much for the anti-cancer properties of shark cartilage. Sharks do develop fewer cancers than most animals for a number of reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2001, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dinosaurs-get-cancer/72790/8 "2001-07-18T01:44:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Revtim \* > \*\*The “sharks don’t get cancer” thing was disproved, right? > > \*\* So [Deep Blue Sea](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0149261) wasn’t a documentary? I’m shocked 😃