[HN Gopher] Ancient diseases that plagued the dinosaurs (2023)
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       Ancient diseases that plagued the dinosaurs (2023)
        
       Author : Brajeshwar
       Score  : 24 points
       Date   : 2024-01-03 15:32 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
        
       | anfractuosity wrote:
       | Probably a very naive question, but with large animals like
       | certain dinosaurs, could cancer potentially be more common than
       | in humans, due to the number of cells. I imagine it's not that
       | simple though.
        
         | 7thaccount wrote:
         | Haven't read the article yet, but I believe some large and
         | long-lived animals like elephants are also plagued by cancer,
         | but have developed adaptations somehow iirc.
         | 
         | https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210204131438.h...
        
           | neaden wrote:
           | Whales likewise very rarely get cancer, and in general while
           | larger individuals of the same species have a higher risk of
           | cancer, larger animals in general don't get more cancer. It's
           | called Peto's Paradox
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peto%27s_paradox
        
             | anfractuosity wrote:
             | Thanks, hadn't heard of Peto's paradox before
        
         | tomohelix wrote:
         | Depend on how you look at it. There are definitely higher
         | chances of a cell becoming a cancer cell when there are more of
         | them. But as the rate become too high in very large animals,
         | they evolved mechanisms to fight it and these are so effective
         | they are more resistant to cancer than apes like humans.
         | 
         | https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325178
        
         | jjtheblunt wrote:
         | there's a famous paradox about that idea wrt elephants.
         | 
         | https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-elephants-don...
        
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