Rosa Rubicondior: Creationism Refuted - Fossil Record Of Fatal Pathogens In Brazil

Fossils with signs of bone disease were from sauropods, of the same order as Tambatitanis

illustration: Palaeotaku/Wikimedia Commons.

Deadly bone disease wiped out long-necked dinosaurs in what is now the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil

According to creationist dogma — though not explicitly stated in the Bible but added later to patch over awkward evidence — death did not enter the world until Eve’s sin somehow allowed it to. Along with death, so the story goes, came parasites, pathogens, and anything else creationists find inconvenient. And, of course, all of this supposedly happened just 6,000–10,000 years ago.

The problems with that are two-fold:

Firstly, there is the question of what Adam and Eve, and the animals allegedly created for their use, ate. Did the plants they consumed remain alive as they passed through the digestive system, nutrients extracted but the plant cells excreted still living? Or did none of them eat anything at all? Obviously, the myth’s authors didn’t understand that plants are just as alive as animals.
Secondly, the entire narrative collides with the fossil record, which shows long-dead animals preserved in strata dated to tens or even hundreds of millions of years before the mythical ‘Creation Week’—during the 99.9975% of Earth’s history that creationism simply erases. Those animals had metabolisms dependent on consuming living or dead tissues, and their fossils often show evidence not only of death, but of predation, parasitism, and disease. Many evolved armour plating, spines, and other defences that make sense only in the presence of predators and pathogens.

And here’s a paradox creationists often tie themselves in knots over: did God design humans with an immune system, or was it a post-Fall upgrade? If it was there from the start, then God was already planning for parasites and pathogens—hardly the “perfect” world creationists claim. If it was added later, then God wasn’t omniscient, as he failed to foresee a future need. Either way, the story collapses under its own contradictions.

It is therefore no surprise that researchers from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) and the Regional University of Cariri (URCA) in Crato, Ceará, Brazil, have found evidence of dinosaurs being infected—and killed—by osteomyelitis around 80 million years before ‘Creation Week’. Fossils of sauropod dinosaurs show clear signs of active osteomyelitis, with no signs of healing, indicating that the disease proved fatal.

Geological Background: Bauru Group (Upper Cretaceous, Brazil).

Age & Geographical Setting
The Bauru Group is a Late Cretaceous (Coniacian–Maastrichtian) continental sedimentary sequence within the Paraná Basin, spanning across parts of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Goiás, Paraná, and even northeastern Paraguay [1, 2]
Major Subunits and Sedimentary Environments
This group is subdivided into multiple formations—including, but not limited to, the Adamantina, Marília, Araçatuba, Uberaba, and Vale do Rio do Peixe Formations—depending on regional classification schemes [2].

The sediments represent a mix of fluvial, lacustrine, eolian (wind-blown), and alluvial-fan environments. The region experienced alternating periods of wetter “lakes and rivers” and arid to semi-arid conditions, marked by shifting depositional pulses and intermittent dry phases [1, 3, 4].
Depositional Cycles & Climate
Studies identify at least four depositional cycles — ranging from early fluvio-lacustrine and lacustrine stages (Caiuá and Santo Anastácio formations) to more arid fluvial-alluvial contexts (Adamantina and upper formations) [3].

The prevailing Late Cretaceous climate in the region was hot and arid to semi-arid, interspersed with episodic wetter intervals that expanded shallow lacustrine systems [3].
Basin Formation & Geological Structure
The Bauru Basin formed as an intracratonic sedimentary trough, likely driven by thermal subsidence linked to Gondwana’s fragmentation and the Andean orogenic events. Its sediment fill can exceed ~300 meters in thickness, predominantly siliciclastic in composition [5].
Fossil Richness and Ecosystem
The Bauru Group holds one of the richest dinosaur-bearing fossil records in South America—featuring diverse saurischians, especially titanosaurs, and abundant crocodyliforms (including baurusuchids, peirosaurids, sphagesaurids, and more) [6].

Notably, remarkable genera include:

Baurutitan, a lithostrotian titanosaur from the Serra da Galga Formation (Maastrichtian, ~72–66 Ma) [7].
Baurusuchus, a terrestrial predatory crocodyliform (~90–83.5 Ma) adapted to arid floodplain environments [8].
Ibirasuchus, an itasuchid crocodyliform described as recently as 2025 from the São José do Rio Preto Formation [9].
Campinasuchus, another baurusuchid from the Adamantina Formation (~93.5–83.5 Ma) [10].

The discovery is reported, open access, in The Anatomical Record and summarised in a news release By André Julião from Agência FAPESP.

Deadly bone disease wiped out long-necked dinosaurs in what is now the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil
Researchers found sauropod bones with signs of osteomyelitis, an infectious disease that can be caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, or protozoa and that killed the animals quickly. The discovery suggests that favorable conditions for the disease existed in the region about 80 million years ago.
A set of bones belonging to sauropods, as long-necked dinosaurs are called, found in the municipality of Ibirá in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, reveals that the region was conducive to a bone disease that was fatal to these animals.

Supported by FAPESP, the researchers found signs of osteomyelitis, a bone disease that can be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, or protozoa, in the fossils of six individuals from the Cretaceous period, approximately 80 million years ago.

The bones show no signs of regeneration, suggesting that the animals died with the disease still active, probably as a result of it. The study was published in the journal The Anatomical Record.

“There have been few findings of infectious diseases in sauropods, the first having been published recently. The bones we analyzed are very close to each other in time and from the same paleontological site, which suggests that the region provided conditions for pathogens to infect many individuals during that period,” says Tito Aureliano, the first author of the study and a researcher at the Regional University of Cariri (URCA) in Crato, in the Brazilian state of Ceará.

One of the lesions was confined to the marrow. The other bones, which were also found between 2006 and 2023 at the Vaca Morta site, have lesions that extend from the marrow to the outer part. These lesions have a spongy texture, indicating vascularization in the region. This texture differentiates the lesions from other pathologies that can affect bone tissue, such as osteosarcoma and bone neoplasia, two types of cancer.

There were no signs of healing, which is when the bone tissue lost in the lesion is replaced by new tissue. This sign of regeneration is quite common in the fossil record of bones affected by bites from other dinosaurs.

In the approximately 80-million-year-old fossilized bone, the arrows indicated by BL point to the lesion caused by osteomyelitis. HB is the unlesioned part, and MB is the bone marrow.
Image: Tito Aureliano et al. (2025)

Analysis

The study was supported by the Institute for the Study of Parasitic Hymenoptera in the Brazilian Southeast Region (HYMPAR), which is a National Institute of Science and Technology (INCT) supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and FAPESP.

At IEHYPA-Sudeste, which is coordinated by Angélica Maria Penteado Martins Dias, a professor at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), researchers analyzed the bones using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a stereomicroscope.

Three previously unknown manifestations of osteomyelitis were identified in the fossils. One set contained small protrusions, bone elevations, or “bumps” in a circular shape.

Other protrusions had a pattern similar to fingerprints and were elliptical in shape. Finally, a third set had round, wide marks that were larger than all the others.

These lesions could connect with muscles and skin and become exposed, oozing blood or pus.

Tito Aureliano, lead author
Department of Biological Chemistry
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Diversidade Biológica e Recursos Naturais
Regional University of Cariri (URCA), Crato, Brazil.

It was impossible to determine exactly which bones were analyzed; however, it was known that one was a rib and the rest were from the lower limbs of small and giant species. It was also not possible to identify the cause of the infections.

In a 2021 study published in Cretaceous Research, researchers described the first case of bone infection caused by a blood parasite resulting in osteomyelitis. The bones in that case were from a small sauropod species, Ibirania parva, which was found in the same location as the fossils analyzed now.

The region, known as the São José do Rio Preto Formation – because it encompasses the municipality of the same name – had an arid climate with shallow, slow-moving rivers and large pools of standing water. In these environments, many dinosaurs became stuck and died, producing fossils.

This environment probably favored pathogens, which may have been transmitted by mosquitoes or by the water itself that was ingested by the fauna, which included dinosaurs, turtles, and animals similar to today’s crocodiles

Tito Aureliano.

The author also points out that the evidence provided by the study may be useful for future paleontological and archaeological work because it presents different manifestations of the same disease in bones and differentiates it from others.
Publication:
Tito Aureliano, Waltécio Almeida, Marcelo A. Fernandes, Aline Marcele Ghilardi
Several occurrences of osteomyelitis in dinosaurs from a site in the Bauru Group, Cretaceous of Southeast Brazil
The Anatomical Record, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.70003

Abstract
This study investigates the occurrence of osteomyelitis in non-avian dinosaurs, focusing on the Ibirá locality, a site with a high incidence of this pathological condition. We analyzed six new osteopathic sauropod specimens from the Upper Cretaceous of Brazil. The results revealed a relationship between infection and bone remodeling, denoted by various manifestations of reactive bone neoformation, including periosteal reaction. Healing tissues were not identified, which implies that the individuals died when the infection was still active. We described distinct manifestations of osteomyelitis with periosteal bone neoformation: (1) periosteal reaction within small circular protrusions; (2) ellipsoid protrusions in a fingerprint pattern; (3) enlarged protrusions both in height and area. This study underscores the importance of examining pathological conditions in extinct species to enhance our understanding of their physiology and interactions with their ancient environments.

1 INTRODUCTION
The study of bone pathology in deep time contexts offers a unique opportunity to assess the evolution of diseases in ancient populations and ecosystems (Chinsamy, 2023; Rothschild et al., 2023.1a; Rothschild & Martin, 2006). The analysis of fossils from pre-human times is an ascending field that provides insights into diseases like osteoarthropathy, neoplasia, lytic lesions, and infections (Bertozzo et al., 2023.2; Cisneros et al., 2010; Ekhtiari et al., 2020; Haridy et al., 2019; Jurmain & Kilgore, 1995; Stilson et al., 2016; Surmik et al., 2022; Xing et al., 2024). Among these diseases, osteomyelitis is commonly reported in the fossil record. Osteomyelitis is a destructive inflammatory condition that results from an osseous infection not restricted to the medulla, which may be bacterial, protozoal, fungal, or viral in etiology (Townsend & Koç, 2023.3). It may remain localized or expand to involve distinct structures such as the bone marrow, cortex, periosteum, and portions of the surrounding soft tissues (Jorge et al., 2010.1). This destructive inflammatory condition may progress to osteoblastic bone neoformation, besides sepsis (Smith et al., 2006.1). The periosteal reaction, also present in some cases of osteomyelitis, consists of the elevation of the cortex, forming new bone as a consequence of the inflammation (Rothschild et al., 2023.1a). Osteomyelitis has been reported as occurring throughout the Mesozoic in several non-avian dinosaur clades, including sauropodomorphs, ornithopods, and coelurosaurs (Aureliano et al., 2021; Barbosa et al., 2018; Chinzorig et al., 2022.1; Cruzado-Caballero et al., 2023.4; Hunt et al., 2019.1; Ramírez-Velasco et al., 2017; Redelstorff et al., 2015; Tanke & Rothschild, 2002; Woodruff et al., 2022.2; Xing et al., 2018.1). Associated causalities for osteomyelitis in the dinosaur fossil record include unhealed fractures and bites (Chinzorig et al., 2022.1; Xing et al., 2018.1) and pathogen-induced infections (Aureliano et al., 2021; Woodruff et al., 2022.2). Here we report a set of non-avian dinosaur specimens found within the same site (Ibirá locality, Bauru Group, Southeast Brazil) with the exceptional preservation of different manifestations of osteomyelitis, providing a detailed mosaic of the infection-driven bone remodeling with and without periosteal reaction.

Tito Aureliano, Waltécio Almeida, Marcelo A. Fernandes, Aline Marcele Ghilardi
Several occurrences of osteomyelitis in dinosaurs from a site in the Bauru Group, Cretaceous of Southeast Brazil
The Anatomical Record, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.70003

Copyright: © 2025 The authors.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

Discoveries like this present a profound difficulty for creationists who choose not to look the other way. If parasites, pathogens, and fatal infections were already killing dinosaurs tens of millions of years before humans appeared, then the central claim that “death only entered the world after the Fall” is not just questionable—it is demonstrably false. The fossil record is littered with evidence of predation, disease, and suffering long before any putative humans walked the Earth.

To accept the evidence at face value would mean admitting that the natural world has always included death and disease, and that life evolved under constant ecological pressures from predators and parasites. To deny it requires either ignoring the fossils entirely or proposing that God deliberately planted a record of suffering and extinction to mislead us—hardly the hallmark of an all-loving creator.

This leaves creationists with an uncomfortable choice: either acknowledge that the Bible’s simplistic tale of a “perfect” beginning cannot account for the data, or retreat into ever more convoluted rationalisations that collapse under their own contradictions. The immune system paradox alone—did God plan for pathogens or fail to foresee them?—exposes how fragile their framework is. The bones of long-dead dinosaurs, scarred by disease, stand as silent testimony that life’s history has always been intertwined with death, long before mythical gardens and forbidden fruit.

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