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Tooth And Bone Pathologies


Harry Pristis

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Here's a Columbian mammoth molar that looks deformed-not sure if it is, though. Instead of being slightly convex across the top, it is very much concave. A picture of a normal Woolly mammoth molar is also attached for comparison.

EDIT: it is supposedly from a Columbian mammoth, but I'm not sure-the scales look too wide.

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Edited by 32fordboy
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Another one for you: a Flexicalymene retrorsa with a bryozoan on its eye. I did not take the pics.

While not technically a pathology, that is a very cool Flexi :thumbsu:

There's no limit to what you can accomplish when you're supposed to be doing something else

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"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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Sorry for the poor pictures, had to take them indoors with the camera flash. This is the worst pathology that I've seen in quite some time. This is an impacted mastodon or mammoth tusk. This is a nearly complete tusk from a full grown proboscidean, problem is, instead of being 7-10 feet long, it's only 19" long. This tusk is extremely deformed with all kinds of weird growths, it almost looks like a massive coprolite!! Nasty!!

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  • I found this Informative 3
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Nate, that looks like a nasty infection...might have led to the animal's death. Would love to see some "daylight" photos.

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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  • 2 weeks later...

There's another paper somewhere that talks about tuberculosis in mastodon bones (apparently it effects the bones?). The guy doing the research said more than 50% of the bones he looked at showed signs of tuberculosis. If that's true, it wouldn't have helped the mastodon (and probably other animal) populations at the end of the Pleistocene. Supposedly, the study is highly controversial with plenty of other paleontologists calling BS.

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That paper sounds like it's worth reading. Will try to see if I can find it..

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Yep that's the article. I should have known better than to post without a link :blush::D

yeah, really, the nerve.. ya made me work and on my day off...:P:)

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Here is one I found in a creek in Summerville, SC.

Still not sure what the ID is.

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Enjoy....

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I am not certain of the specimen either but I really, really like it..

Bet someone knows the ID too.. Is that area Cretaceous or younger?

I wish I would find more pathological fossils. I have a real fascination with them..

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I am not certain of the specimen either but I really, really like it..

Bet someone knows the ID too.. Is that area Cretaceous or younger?

I wish I would find more pathological fossils. I have a real fascination with them..

I believe it is from the Chandler Bridge Formation, Oligocene Epoch (approx 28 mya)

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I believe it is from the Chandler Bridge Formation, Oligocene Epoch (approx 28 mya)

Likely a Carcharhinus sp., but it's so hard to be sure with pathologies like that.

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Great Topic :D:)

My almost 90° Cretaceous NC shark tooth

Wow, wonder what happened... most bizarre, excellent!

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Here is another pathological bone. This one is a diseased osteoderm from a fair-size 'gator. The bones in the image are well-mineralized.

In the diseased specimen the central boss is barely distinguishable. In the normal osteoderm of roughly the same size, the central boss is knobby with some wear after death, I think.

Compare the pitted surface of the normal bone to the distorted surface of the diseased bone.

Note also the difference between the undersurface of the normal example and that of the pathological example.

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  • I found this Informative 1

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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I see huge differences.. The underside is so distorted, almost

not recognizable.

Makes me wonder if he was in pain but

I don't know how alligators were wired as far as nerve endings go..

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