Ouch! 70 Million Years Later, a Dinosaur Diagnosed With Arthritis

What killed dinosaurs?

Step aside rocky climate, volcanic eruptions and meteorites. Turns out at least one of them was wiped out by arthritis.

OMG! The most puzzling oddity of prehistoric times boils down to something as mundane as joint pain! But imagine the plight, waiting 70 million years to get that diagnosis.

Well, paleontologists I tell ya!

On a serious note, this discovery is huge. It tells us:
1) There’s nothing like a bum leg.
2) Arthritis has been disabling joints from dinosaurs to humans since prehistoric times.
3) It’s not really just a modern lifestyle disease unique to humans.

The Patient Died 70 Million Years Ago, How Was the Discovery Made Possible?

A team of scientists led by the University of Manchester found a fossil-ed elbow joint of a dinosaur in the area around New Jersey. Now the tricky part, even for paleontologists (you remember the profession from Friends, Ross was one), is to diagnose disease in a patient who passed away 70 million years ago mainly because of the fragility of the bones. Cutting them to get more information was not an option.

So scientists used high-tech X-ray imaging to reveal a “highly reactive, inflamed, eroded and fused” bone growth in the area around the elbow joint. The condition, a debilitating form of the disease, septic arthritis, caused by an infection, mostly cripples birds, crocodiles, elderly humans or people with a weakened immune system.

Septic arthritis represents further complications caused by arthritis in the form of infection. The dinosaur probably had a partially bent arm with either little or no movement at the elbow. Kind of like Igor from Frankenstein. It also probably would have had a limp.

Dr Jennifer Anné, University of Manchester

Scientists further say in the research paper that the condition would’ve made it impossible for the animal to move its elbow. It’s rather humbling to think that the condition which cripples pigeons and the elderly might have killed the spectacular dinosaurs.

Could Such Discoveries Provide Cures For Serious Human Illnesses

Last week, South African scientists discovered the oldest case of cancer in a 1.7 million-year-old fossil of an ancient human toe. Up till now, the oldest known human fossil affected with cancer was dated 3,000 B.C.

Discoveries like these contradict the basic assumption that critical illnesses like cancer and arthritis are man-made, modern and uniquely human.

Scientists at the Manchester University who are studying diseases at the fossil-level say the discoveries that dinosaurs could recover from serious illnesses, fractured bones, fatal bacterial infections on their own implies that there was some self-healing element in their DNA.

They believe that these incredible DNA strains which repair the body have been passed on to alligators and crocodiles, the descendants of dinosaurs. A simple example- even if an alligator loses a limb to a disease, it does not get further life-threatening infections even though it lives in a swamp full of bacteria.

Focusing on such pathologies of the living relatives of dinosaurs might help scientists develop drugs that boost the human immune system.

Till such mind-boggling discoveries happen, sit down and digest the fact that not all dinosaurs died epic deaths. A few just got old and broke down. And now I hope these spectacular discoveries aren’t from the script of the new Jurassic Park film!