pliosaurs -- not dinosaurs but ancient sea reptiles that lived 150 million years ago -- may have had arthritis.
A team at the University of Bristol has found signs of a degenerative condition similar to human arthritis in the jaw of a pliosaur. Such a disease has never been described before in fossilised Jurassic reptiles.
The scientists studied a giant specimen of the pliosaur Pliosaurus dating from the Upper Jurassic. Found in Westbury, Wiltshire, it has been kept since its discovery in collections of the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.
The eight-metre-long pliosaur was a terrifying creature with a large, crocodile-like head, a short neck, whale-like body and four powerful flippers to propel it through water in pursuit of prey, the 'Palaeontology' journal reported.
With its huge jaws and 20 cm long teeth, it would have been capable of ripping most other marine reptiles or dinosaurs to pieces, but this particular individual was the unfortunate victim of an arthritis-like disease.
Lead scientist Dr Judyth Sassoon said she noticed in the museum collections that it had the signs of a degenerative condition similar to human arthritis, that had eroded its left jaw joint, displacing the lower jaw to one side. (MORE)
