Paleopathology: Evidence of Systemic Pneumatic Fungal Pathosis in a Patagonian Titanosaur

When the near-complete skeleton of a colossal titanosaur was unearthed in Patagonia in 1987, it was hailed as a major discovery. However, its immense size and extreme fragility made it nearly impossible to excavate, transport, and study. For decades, the specimen, nicknamed the “Alabaster Behemoth,” sat in storage, becoming a paleontological “white elephant”—a costly and monumental undertaking that yielded little new scientific insight and was a logistical nightmare of a megaproject. It was considered by many to be just a bigger, more cumbersome version of already-known sauropods.

This perception changed radically with the advent of Synchrotron-based micro-CT scanning, which allowed paleontologists to peer inside the colossal bones without cutting into them. The scans revealed a shocking secret that tells a new story about the dinosaur’s life and the hidden costs of its gigantism. The behemoth’s vertebrae and ribs were riddled with a complex network of air sacs, a common feature in sauropods. But within these pneumatic cavities, the scans revealed widespread and severe bone lesions, consistent with an advanced, systemic fungal infection.

This is the first direct fossil evidence of a specific pathology potentially leading to the decline of a dinosaur species. The infection, caused by a now-theorized fungus named Palaeoaspergillus, would have severely compromised the animal’s respiratory system, leaving it perpetually weakened and struggling for breath. What was once a useless “white elephant” has now become one of the most important pathological specimens in history. It provides a crucial window into the diseases that plagued the largest animals ever to walk the Earth, showing that even giants could be brought down not just by predators, but by microscopic pathogens.