It turns out that dinosaurs have more in common with humans than initially thought: they lived in groups, needed food to survive (obviously) and even suffered from joint pain.
Yes, that's right, researchers have found evidence of septic arthritis in the elbow of a 70-million-year-old duck-billed dinosaur, making it the oldest case of the ailment to ever be recorded.
In a study published Tuesday, Aug. 2, in Royal Society Open Science, researchers describe the first-known dinosaur to have suffered from septic arthritis, a condition in which a joint becomes inflamed, often from bacteria or fungus. Its remains were found in what is now New Jersey, and while only two forearm bones — the radius and ulna — were recovered, they say that it was probably a duck-billed dinosaur known as a hadrosaur, though they can't say for certain quite yet.
So, how did they conclude that the unfortunate dinosaur had arthritis? The state of its bones. Upon examining the bones, they noticed that both were covered with a peculiar growth the texture of cauliflower. Closer examination soon revealed that the elbow joint had completely eroded away and then fused.
"It probably had a partially bent arm with either little or no movement at the elbow. Kind of like Igor from 'Frankenstein,'" said study first author Jennifer Anné, who recently completed her Ph.D. from the University of Manchester in Britain. "It also probably would have had a limp."
While this discovery is new, the discovery of the bones themselves is quite old — a little over a decade, even.
However, at the time of their discovery, they lacked the appropriate tools to sufficiently study the bones since they had suffered from pyrite disease, a condition that causes bones to turn to dust when they are touched.
As such, it wasn't until Anné and her colleagues got hold of a micro computed tomography (micro-CT) scanner at Harvard University — which uses X-rays to peer through the rock and bone — to see what was inside.
Once inside, they compared the dinosaur's symptoms with those seen in other animals, and ultimately concluded that their specimen suffered from septic arthritis.
Unfortunately, it looks like this is where the research stops. Typically, the next course of study would be to assess just how far the arthritis has spread, but due to the missing bones, it isn't quite possible to do that.
"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 [upper arm bone] at the elbow joint as well," she said.
This isn't first time a duck-billed dinosaur has been met with misfortune. A recent study also revealed that a duck-billed dinosaur was the first ever to show signs of a facial tumor.
