Caudipteryx suffered from osteoarthritis

[Ben Creisler <bscreisler@yahoo.com>]

From: Ben Creisler
bscreisler@yahoo.com
 
 
A new online article (classifies Caudipteryx as a bird, however):
 Bruce M. Rothschild, Zheng Xiaoting & Larry D. Martin (2012)
Osteoarthritis in the early avian radiation: Earliest recognition of the 
disease in birds.
Cretaceous Research (advance online publication)
doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2011.12.008
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667111002084
　
Abstract
Osteoarthritis is extremely rare in wild mammal populations (less than 1%) and 
varies in frequency according to species (0--25%) in recent birds, where it is 
inversely related to size. Large population samples of Early Cretaceous birds 
in China permit us to analyze its frequency in one of the earliest avian 
radiations. In these samples, the larger bird (Caudipteryx) shows a high 
frequency (30%). The earliest previous documentation of primary osteoarthritis 
in any animal is in a family of Early Cretaceous dinosaurs (Iguanodontidae). We 
document its occurrence in a basal bird and in one of the forms considered by 
some to be a feathered dinosaur. These occurrences are 20 million years older 
than the next oldest occurrence of osteoarthritis.