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Palaeontology

Dinosaurs struggled with arthritis too

By T.K. Randall
May 18, 2012 · Comment icon 13 comments

Image Credit: Tor Sponga, BT
It isn't just humans that suffer from conditions like arthritis, even the dinosaurs suffered from it.
Scientists have found evidence of the degenerative disorder in the jaws of a pliosaur, a sea-dwelling reptile that lived over 150 million years ago. The creature would have suffered from the condition for several years, resulting in a crooked jaw that would have eventually left it unable to eat.

"In the same way that aging humans develop arthritic hips, this old lady developed an arthritic jaw, and survived with her disability for some time," said Judyth Sassoon. "But an unhealed fracture on the jaw indicates that at some time, the jaw weakened and eventually broke. With a broken jaw, the pliosaur would not have been able to feed and that final accident probably led to her demise."
Scientists found signs of a degenerative condition similar to human arthritis in the jaw of a pliosaur, a dinosaur-like ancient sea reptile that lived 150 million years ago.


Source: New York Daily News | Comments (13)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #4 Posted by csspwns 13 years ago
so arthritis goes back 150,000,000 years. but i thought God created the earth 6000 years ago?
Comment icon #5 Posted by mattryan209 13 years ago
This was one of the dumbest research "findings" I've seen.
Comment icon #6 Posted by Drakester 13 years ago
Wouldn´t hurt to mention that pliosaurs are not dinosaurs to begin with... What seems interesting to me is that they believe the creature to have been a female. I had never heard about they knowing how to tell females and males apart... anyone knows more about it?
Comment icon #7 Posted by Erudite Celt 13 years ago
Wouldn´t hurt to mention that pliosaurs are not dinosaurs to begin with... What seems interesting to me is that they believe the creature to have been a female. I had never heard about they knowing how to tell females and males apart... anyone knows more about it? They must have found her fossilised handbag
Comment icon #8 Posted by ShadowSot 13 years ago
Wouldn´t hurt to mention that pliosaurs are not dinosaurs to begin with... What seems interesting to me is that they believe the creature to have been a female. I had never heard about they knowing how to tell females and males apart... anyone knows more about it? Hips are a good way to tell, females have wider hips for offspring. I put the blame for the quality of the article more on the "reporter" than the person conducting and releasing the study. Science reporting's gone to pot lately.
Comment icon #9 Posted by SameerPrehistorica 13 years ago
They must have found her fossilised handbag Lol...Really..these kinds of theories are funny
Comment icon #10 Posted by Sunny Dole 13 years ago
I agree with Erudite Celt. Its probably "septic arthritis" a consequence of jaw bone fracture.
Comment icon #11 Posted by Tx-Perkyness 13 years ago
why the hell do they care anyways? is the past lock jaw syndrome more important than the present cancer disease ...*sigh* scientist these days
Comment icon #12 Posted by ShadowSot 13 years ago
why the hell do they care anyways? is the past lock jaw syndrome more important than the present cancer disease ...*sigh* scientist these days Um... the people studying this were paleontologists. They'd have been useless at a cancer treatment. The biologists, chemists, pathologists, and many, many other scientists in related fields are still hard at work on developing treatments for cancers. In fact, the research there has improved loads in the last ten years alone, with recovery rates tripling or more depending on the type of cancer and where it's located. And stuff like this helps to, it sho... [More]
Comment icon #13 Posted by pallidin 13 years ago
Bet those Dino's wished there was Ibuprofen and OxyContin back then.


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