Editing Infection (section)

==Fossil record==
{{Main|Paleopathology}}
[[File:Herrerasaurus1.JPG|thumb|150px|right|alt=Skull of dinosaur with long jaws and teeth.|''[[Herrerasaurus]]'' skull]]
Evidence of infection in [[Fossil|fossil remains]] is a subject of interest for [[paleopathologists]], scientists who study occurrences of injuries and illness in extinct life forms. Signs of infection have been discovered in the bones of carnivorous dinosaurs. When present, however, these infections seem to tend to be confined to only small regions of the body. A skull attributed to the early carnivorous dinosaur ''[[Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis]]'' exhibits pit-like wounds surrounded by swollen and porous bone. The unusual texture of the bone around the wounds suggests they were affected by a short-lived, non-lethal infection. Scientists who studied the skull speculated that the bite marks were received in a fight with another ''Herrerasaurus''. Other carnivorous dinosaurs with documented evidence of infection include ''[[Acrocanthosaurus]]'', ''[[Allosaurus]]'', ''[[Tyrannosaurus]]'' and a tyrannosaur from the [[Kirtland Formation]]. The infections from both tyrannosaurs were received by being bitten during a fight, like the ''Herrerasaurus'' specimen.<ref name="molnar-pathology">Molnar, R. E., 2001, "Theropod paleopathology: a literature survey": In: ''Mesozoic Vertebrate Life'', edited by Tanke, D. H., and Carpenter, K., Indiana University Press, pp. 337–63.</ref>