Dinosaur skeleton with no arthritis
(Mirror Daily, United States) Scientists released one of the most unexpected news: surprisingly or not, dinosaurs suffered from arthritis. Who would have thought that about the fierce, bonny giants? No wonder something as fragile as man gets bone pains, too.
The discovery comes from New Jersey, where only two bone fragments of bones belonging to a dinosaur were found. The ulna and the radius (bones in the upper members) had peculiar features (growths and texture), which, at a closer look from the researchers, proved to be signs of arthritis. This is a phenomenon they have never encountered before with dinosaurs.
Scientists have also identified the type of arthritis: septic – which is, indeed, a premiere in the case of dinosaurs.
“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”, said Jennifer Anné (University of Manchester, United Kingdom), who led the research.
Scientists are not sure about what type of dinosaur this is since they have so little of the skeleton. Their guess is hadrosaur and hope to find more bone fragments so that they can get out of doubts. It is supposed to have lived 70 million years ago.
Jennifer Anné is also sure that the disease affected much more than the ulna and the radius of the animal, stretching to its elbow as well. She also thinks that the hadrosaur might have been limp and endured severe pains thought it’s life.
“It probably had a partially bent arm with either little or no movement at the elbow. Kind of like Igor from Frankenstein”, the team leader added.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have the rest of the hadrosaur to see how far it might have spread, though I’m betting it would have at least affected the humerus at the elbow joint as well.”
Hadrosaurs, also called duck-billed dinosaurs, were herbivores and had distinctive skull features.
Arthritis is a condition which applies to bones, and there have been reported cases in humans, cats, dogs, birds, and crocodiles.
The latest discovery of the scientists makes us wonder further of the way in which nature works.
Image courtesy of: Wikipedia
Tara Hamilton
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