Dinosaur life wasn't all peaches and cream before the Chicxulub asteroid struck Earth. Some were plagued by much smaller dangers long before.

A new study has found evidence that a potentially deadly bone disease endangered the lives of numerous long-necked dinosaurs in what is now Brazil, roughly 80 million years ago.

These are some of South America's largest dinosaurs , and yet they faced a very tiny enemy.

Related: Scientists Found Cancer in a Dinosaur – And It Might Help Save Human Lives

Scientists have now described the ancient skeletons of six sauropods from Brazil that contain signs of osteomyelitis – a destructive bone infection caused by a bacterium, fungus, virus, or parasite.

Today, the infection impacts mammals, birds, and reptiles .

During the Cretaceous, it

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