A dinosaur has been diagnosed with severe arthritis, 70 million years after its death.

Scientists believed the hadrosaur, a plant-eating duck-billed dinosaur, must have endured considerable suffering before dying.

X-ray analysis of its fossilised elbow joint revealed evidence of septic arthritis, a particularly nasty form of the disease caused by infection and known to afflict modern birds, crocodiles and humans.

The team led by British researcher Dr Jennifer Anne, from the University of Manchester, wrote in the journal Royal Society Open Science: "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first recorded account of septic arthritis in dinosaurs."

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