Dinoarthritis

70 million-year-old dinosaur fossil shows its joints were covered in bony growth.

13:58 05 August 2016

A 70-million hadrosaur, a plant-eating duck-billed dinosaur, was found to have suffered from arthritis following an x-ray analysis. Scientists found evidence of septic arthritis in its fossilised elbow joint, a disease caused by infection and known to afflict modern birds, crocodiles and humans. It is thought that the disease may have made it difficult and painful for the dinosaur to eat and drink.

 

Lead author Dr Jennifer Anné from the University of Manchester said: ‘The condition would have made it almost impossible for the animal to move its elbow, making it look a bit like the hobbling pigeons you see today,’

 

‘It’s almost humbling to think that the same conditions that affect the pigeons on the street might have also affected their impressive dinosaur relatives.’  

 

This is the first time that septic arthritis has been seen in a dinosaur, although osteomyelitis, another arthritic condition, was quite common among the creatures.  

 

The team wrote in the journal Royal Society Open Science: ‘To the best of our knowledge, this is the first recorded account of septic arthritis in dinosaurs.

 

‘The severity of the pathology suggests the animal suffered with this condition for some time before death.’