Washington: Despite having a twisted spine, England`s King Richard III was not a hunchback, a new analysis of the medieval king`s skeleton has found.
After the bones of the 15th-century king were discovered under a parking lot in central England in 2012, scientists scanned the remains of Richard III`s back and created replicas of each bone to reconstruct his spine.
The researchers said while Richard III had a severe case of scoliosis, he was far from the limping "hunchbacked toad" with a withered arm depicted in William Shakespeare`s play, Fox News reported.
Piers Mitchell of the University of Cambridge, one of the study`s authors said that Richard had a very squishy spine but it wouldn`t have stuck out that obviously.
He said it was technically inaccurate to describe Richard III as a hunchback because his spine was bent sideways rather than forward.
He said the king`s head and neck were straight, but his right shoulder was higher than his left and his upper body was relatively short compared to his limbs.
By analyzing the king`s remains, Mitchell and his colleagues also found that his scoliosis developed during adolescence and as a result he was a few inches shorter than he otherwise would have been.
The study is published online in the journal Lancet.
