General introduction

Osteoarthritic disease probably began as soon as skeletal tissues first evolved. At present our earliest evidence for this disease is found among the dinosaurs. Prominent examples include the aquatic Mesozoic reptile, Platycarpus and the giant Diplodocus longus, both of which lived around 100 million years ago and a case of ankylosing spondylitis has been reported in a 140-million-year-old armoured reptile from Britain, Polycanthus foxi (Moodie 1923: Karsh and MacCarthy I960; Zorab 1961; Hollander 1962; Steinbock 1976). Similar bony changes appear in Miocene crocodilians and Pleistocene cave bears, sabre tooth tigers, mammoths, cattle {Bos primagenius), hyenas as well as large flightless birds like the Moa and Aepyornis (Wells 1964, 1973).

Osteoarthritis in humans also goes back a long way. Neanderthals were variably but sometimes severely affected by degenerative joint disease (Trinkaus 1983, 1985). It is now well known that it was arthritic changes to their skeletons that precipitated the initial misinterpretation of their posture and carriage and provided the unflattering image which has become synonymous with all that is brutish and primitive from our ancient past (Boule 1911-13, 1923; Smith 1924 cited in Straus and Cave 1957; Trinkaus 1985). Neanderthal remains from La Chapelle-aux-Saints, La Quina and La Ferrassie have arthritic damage to the temporomandibular joint, spine and hip, while at Shanidar it is confined generally to the major joints (Trinkaus 1983). Many of these changes can be directly attributable to activity levels associated with a lifetime of strenuous movement.