Bloodthirsty beast carrying the oldest tumor on Earth

Scientists have found the earliest tumor on Earth, occurring 255 million years ago in a giant and famous thirsty creature: Gorgonopsid.

According to the Daily Mail, after cutting the 255 million-year fossil jaw of a prehistoric creature called Gorgonopsid , scientists discovered small round holes, traces of a benign tumor . They diagnosed that this prehistoric organism may have had a dental tumor, called the odontoma, and the oldest case of tumors in the world.

Traces of dental tumors on the jaw of a Gorgonopsid.

This discovery was published in the Journal of the American Medical Cancer Association. Previously, the oldest tumor ever discovered was a case of tumors in mammoths and deer living in the Ice Age, about 1 million years ago.

The odontoma block is a type of tumor originating from the tooth, but when the tumor is fully developed, the main component of the tumor is the yeast, the tusks and the marrow part with the bone. Currently, the odontoma blocks meet quite a lot in mammals. Odontoma is considered benign, but it causes pain and swelling, altering the position of teeth and other tissues.

Image simulating a pair of Gorgonopsid.

Dr Judy Skog of the American Institute of Scientific Research said: "This finding shows that the cause of tumors is not only associated with the state of modern animals as people think".

Gorgonopsid is a famous thirsty predator at the end of the Paleozoic era - the era just before the dinosaurs appeared. They can be more than 3m long, have dog-like heads and extremely sharp teeth.