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Tooth And Bone Pathologies


Harry Pristis

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I finally got around to photographing this basicranium (the rear of the skull) of a good-size alligator. I am still astonished that the 'gator lived with this abcess long enough to produce this chunk of bone.

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images copyright Harry Pristis 2013

Man I bet that was one ugly gator in its day!

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Here on the PNW coast we have what are called Indian middens. They are trash dump sites of the local ancient Indian villages. Sometimes these dump sites are 15-20ft deep, indicating several hundred years of village occupation. They were very much like trash dumps today, in that ANYTHING unwanted, got thrown away in the dump/midden.

This particular midden was near the coast so, most of the material in the midden was "near shore kitchen" refuse. Mostly the unwanted parts of their meals, shells, mammal bones, worn or broken tools, cooking rock shards etc. these middens are only a few hundreds of years old and are a treasuretrove of information about local Native American life.

While exploring around this midden, i noticed THIS bone weathering out. It is a bone from a flipper of a large pinniped. Some kind of serious bone pathology. I guess we can all see why he ended up as dinner.

Darwin's theory in action!!!!!

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Edited by PRK
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Man I bet that was one ugly gator in its day!

Probably pretty grumpy, too...

What an outstanding specimen!

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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No one else with a tooth or bone pathology?

Here's another from my drawer. This the right mandible of a Pleistocene jaguar (Panthera onca) from Westcentral Florida. The bone seems completely affected by adventitious bone and drains, likely from an abscess.

The normal mandible is for comparison.

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images copyright Harry Pristis 2013

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---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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  • 1 year later...

I just found this thread due to the work of Indy in posting all of these great threads together. I do have an ornithomimid phalanx with a pathology. I was told by someone at the Tyrrell that his was likely from an older individual who likely had arthritis.

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A fossil hunter needs sharp eyes and a keen search image, a mental template that subconsciously evaluates everything he sees in his search for telltale clues. -Richard E. Leakey

http://prehistoricalberta.lefora.com

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Ophthalmosaurus icenicus ichthyosaur tail, broken and rehealed in life. Upper Jurassic Callovian age approx. 163.5 mya. Damage could have occurred during birth? This is from the lower tail fluke.

Paul

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Edited by paulgdls
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Ophthalmosaurus icenicus ichthyosaur tail, broken and rehealed in life. Upper Jurassic Callovian age approx. 163.5 mya. Damage could have occurred during birth? This is from the lower tail fluke.

Paul

That's very very cool! Looks painful!

"Turn the fear of the unknown into the excitment of possibility!"


We dont stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.

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Ophthalmosaurus icenicus ichthyosaur lower jaw, broken and rehealed in life. Upper Jurassic Callovian age approx. 163.5 mya. Collision damage?

Paul

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Edited by paulgdls
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  • 2 weeks later...

Ophthalmosaurus icenicus ichthyosaur caudal vertebrae showing apparent penetration holes and deformation.

Any ideas on how this damage may have been caused?

Paul

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Ophthalmosaurus icenicus ichthyosaur caudal vertebrae showing apparent penetration holes and deformation.

Any ideas on how this damage may have been caused?

Paul

fascinating! I notice your profile pic is an icythosaur. Did you find it? And what about all these fantastic pieces of history? Sorry for the questions, icythosaur fossils are on my bucket list of fossils to own. As to the marks......wild guess but could it be pliosaur? I don't believe it's shark because usually they leave more than two marks. The deformation could be a birth defect or the late icythosaur might have crashed into something in a hasty retreat from a predator and have been injured. That would explain the bite marks because in the wild, if you aren't in prime health, predators will pick you off.
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TRex

Thank you for your observations. I did find these fossils but some years ago.

Good point about not being shark bites. I agree that they could have been caused by a pliosaur. I will check whether a pliosaur (Peloneustes) could have caused the damage. As you say any damage earlier in life made the creature more vulnerable to predation. Most of the damage on these animals seems to occur just in front of the tail fin or to the tail fin itself. This was the most vulnerable part of the animal I guess.

Good luck with acquiring some ichthyosaur fossils. They are fascinating animals being so different to anything alive today.

regards

Paul

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This one was challenging to photograph because the bones are dark-colored and there are so many angles to consider.

This is my favorite horse, a real survivor! Though eventually it fell prey to a bear dog (no doubt), it survived after breaking a cannon bone long enough for the bones to knit together (any guesses as to how long that took?). This horse must have been lucky to avoid predators while it healed.

I may have more of this bone (if it wasn't chewed to bits) among the scraps I collected at the site. It will take an effort to rummage through the flats.

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---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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...it survived after breaking a cannon bone long enough for the bones to knit together...

What a gruesome injury :o

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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This one was challenging to photograph because the bones are dark-colored and there are so many angles to consider.

This is my favorite horse, a real survivor! Though eventually it fell prey to a bear dog (no doubt), it survived after breaking a cannon bone long enough for the bones to knit together (any guesses as to how long that took?). This horse must have been lucky to avoid predators while it healed.

I may have more of this bone (if it wasn't chewed to bits) among the scraps I collected at the site. It will take an effort to rummage through the flats.

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Owch!!!
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This one was challenging to photograph because the bones are dark-colored and there are so many angles to consider...

Looking a the size of the distal condyle, which seems overly small, I wonder whether this injury occurred when the animal was a juvenile. Fantastic pathology, thanks for sharing.

Paul

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On ‎12‎/‎6‎/‎2014 at 4:03 PM, paulgdls said:

Looking a the size of the distal condyle, which seems overly small, I wonder whether this injury occurred when the animal was a juvenile. Fantastic pathology, thanks for sharing.

Paul

The distal condyle present is on the ankylosed splint, Paul, not on the cannon bone (metatarsal III). I think it is about the correct adult size.

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Here is a less gruesome healed break in a horse cannon bone -- another metatarsal -- this one from the tiny horse, Archaeohippus sp. Notice the bone spur that must have been a lingering problem, not to mention the angle which the phalanges must have taken.

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The distal condyle present is on the ankylosed splint not on the cannon bone (metatarsal III). I think it is about the correct adult size.

Here is a less gruesome healed break in a horse cannon bone -- another metatarsal -- this one from the tiny horse, Archaeohippus sp. Notice the bone spur that must have been a lingering problem, not to mention the angle at which the phalanges must have taken.

Thanks for putting me right on that Harry. Yes, of course the splint.

Archaeohippus - again a wonderful fossil. Are these all self collected? How large would this individual have been?

Paul

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  • 1 year later...

Here's an interesting equid horse pathology -- a damaged and healed proximal phalanx. (Of course, I can't rule out birth defect; but, this pathology is to a place that takes a great deal of stress.)

I speculate that the injury occurred very early when the epiphysis was unfused and the bones were growing fast. Protection by the herd would have been critical. The horse would have always walked with a limp, I think, identifying itself as a target for predators. The fact that this individual grew to adulthood is extraordinary.

Any thoughts on this one?

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What seest thou else

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---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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  • 2 years later...

Hey everyone, nice pathos!

I thought I'd revive this thread with a pathological mosasaur (Prognathodon sp.) tooth from the Late Cretaceous of New Jersey.

 

 

Mosasaur-tooth-16-300x300.jpgMosasaur-tooth-17-300x300.jpgMosasaur Cretaceous tooth, Monmouth County, New Jersey - Anterior ViewMosasaur-tooth-20-300x300.jpgMosasaur Cretaceous tooth, Monmouth County, New Jersey - Occlusal ViewMosasaur-tooth-18-300x300.jpg

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“You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.” ― Mikhail Tal

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  • 2 months later...

 

A pathological phalanx from a crocodile.  The detail is not good enough to say for sure, but this damage is likely from a bite.

 

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---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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epicyonhaydenisenile.jpg.78a656258019046e477e1106f75f448b.jpg

 

Here is the jaw of Epicyon haydeni with extremely worn teeth -- I think that constitutes a pathology, doesn't it? 

 

This is a borophagine (literally, "gluttonous eater") dog, with teeth specialized for crushing bone -- eating everything. The Borophaginae were a large subfamily with many successful species. Epicyon haydeni is the largest representative known from Florida. The last representative of the Borophaginae, Osteoborus sp., became extinct in the Pliocene.

 

One prominent feature of these dogs was the large and crowded lower premolar four (p4) and molar one (m1 - the carnassial). Premolar three was reduced in size. This arrangement of teeth turned the p4-m1 conjunction into a crushing platform for reducing meat and bone to an appropriate size.
 
Notice in this example that, while all the teeth are heavily worn, the crucial p4-m1 crushing platform is destroyed. It wasn't broken as a fossil. The carnasial was worn down in life to its two roots -- you can make out the wear facets on the stubs.
 
We can't say how this dog died. It was not an abscess on this jaw that killed it. I like to think it was simply old age -- that the king (or queen) just wore out . . . as did his teeth.
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What seest thou else

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---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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