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Ancient creatures resemble stout - necked Loch Ness Monsters apparently developed arthritis in their monster jaw , revealing that even such lethal killer whale could abide from and finally knuckle under to diseases of old age , researchers discover .
Scientists reached that finis while investigating the fossil of anextinct marine reptileknown asa pliosaur . The carnivore was apparently an old female extending some 26 feet ( 8 meters ) . It had a 10 - foot - long ( 3 meters ) , crocodilelike head , short neck , whalelike body and four muscular flippers to propel it through water to hunt down quarry .
The old female pliosaur sported huge jaws (its lower jaw shown here with researcher Judyth Sassoon) and teeth about 8 inches (20 centimeters) long.
" This pliosaur , like many of its relatives , was truly huge , " research worker Michael Benton , a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Bristol in England , told LiveScience . " To stand beside its skull and realise that it is 3 meters long , and monolithic and heavy as it is , that it once functioned with musculus and line vessels and nervousness , is amazing . you may dwell down inside its mouth . "
Normally , with huge jaws and tooth about 8 in ( 20 centimeters ) long , this pliosaur could have ripped most other animals aside . However , fossilist regain this specimen was obviously afflicted with an arthritis - corresponding disease .
honest-to-god peeress pliosaur
Pliosaurs were huge, even compared with other giants, such as the great white shark (top), killer whale and the relatively small human.
Benton and his colleagues analyzed an approximately 150 - million - yr - erstwhile specimen ofPliosaurusthat had been unearthed in 1994 by fossil collector Simon Carpenter and control since then in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery in England .
The wildcat would have lived in what is now southern England , back when the area was covered in warm , shallow seas . " think the Mediterranean or Florida , " Benton said . Other fossils from the site include little marine reptile such as marine crocodile , turtles and plesiosaurs , other Loch Ness Monster - like animal upon which the pliosaur probably fed , as well as Pisces and shellfish . [ Loch Ness Madness : Our 10 Favorite Monsters ]
The skeletal system had a low ridgeline of osseous tissue running from front to back on top of its skull . detective regarded it as female because males were thought to have taller ridge . Its large size of it and fused skull bones suggested maturity . The investigators noticed the reptilian had sign of a degenerative condition similar tohuman arthritis .
Judyth Sassoon holds part of the snout of the Westbury pliosaur; the holes on the specimen are tooth sockets
" The most exciting aspect of this enquiry for me is the creaky condition , which has never been seen before in these or similarMesozoic reptiles , " researcher Judyth Sassoon at the University of Bristol told LiveScience .
stooped jaws
The degenerative condition had gnaw at the pliosaur ’s left jaw joint . This would have knock its lower jaw askew .
" In the same direction that aging humans acquire arthritic hips , this old lady developed an arthritic jaw and survived with her disability for some time , " Sassoon articulate . " But an unhealed crack on the jaw suggest that at some time the jaw break and eventually broke .
" With a broken jaw , the pliosaur would not have been able to give , and that final accident probably led to her death . "
cross on the lower jawbone from the pliosaur ’s upper teeth indicate the vulture last with a crooked jaw for many years , long enough to damage its own bones .
" you could see these kinds of disfigurement in living animal , such as crocodiles orsperm whale , and these brute can last for years as long as they are still able to feed . But it must be painful , " Benton order . " recall that the fictional hulk Moby - Dick , from Herman Melville ’s novel , was supposed to have had a crooked jaw . " [ Album : World ’s Biggest beast ]
Despite its condition , the animal was patently still able-bodied to hunt and avoid being eaten by other pliosaurs , which were the top vulture in their surroundings , the researchers noted .
" To see the jaws distorted out of place substantially enough that the front tips of the jaws overlap , and the lower tooth made definite gob in the upper jaw , 5 centimeter ( 2 inch ) off to the side , and that it lived with this harrowing annoyance for so long , plain still do to feed , is quite telling , " Benton wrote in an email . " This was an old , weather - beaten animal when it died . "
Sassoon , Benton and Leslie Noè detailed their finding online May 15 in the daybook Palaeontology .
Sassoon is currently investigating another pliosaur and hopes to better understand the creatures ' diversity and habit and how they mechanically adapt to their huge size .
" I plan to contain on poking around inmuseum ingathering , looking for interesting specimen , until I am too sometime to lift a paintbrush and pass over the dust off a fogy , " Sassoon suppose .
