London - Dinosaurs suffered painful arthritis, scientists have revealed.
A degenerative condition similar to human arthritis was found in the jaw of a pliosaur – a sea reptile that lived 150 million years ago.
The discovery marks the first time such diseases have been found in fossilised Jurassic reptiles.
A team from Bristol University studied an eight-metre long creature found in Westbury, Wiltshire.
With a crocodile-like head and a whale-like body it hunted fish and was vulnerable only to its own kind.
But it developed an arthritis-like disease which caused its left jaw joint to erode and distort until it broke.
Dr Judyth Sassoon told Tuesday’s Palaeontology journal: “That final accident probably led to her demise.” - Daily Mail