Pathological changes on the ribs of woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius)

Woolly mammoth ribs are often examined less closely, as they do not provide much (if any) information about the age, sex or number of individuals. Nevertheless, they bear various kinds of pathologies and therefore can be one of the sources of information about life, physical condition, and diseases of the animals. This study was conducted on mammoth ribs from some of the largest mammoth bone assemblages in Central Europe, the Polish site Kraków Spadzista street as well as the Moravian sites Milovice I and Předmostí. We present all kinds of the pathologies encountered.There are two categories of bone changes that can be found on mammoth ribs: those resulting from trauma and those resulting from disease. The discovered posttraumatic bone changes include healed fractures. Some of the osteolytic changes on ribs also fall into this category, whereas other pathologies are most probably a result of neoplasms and osteoporosis. Examination of the osteoporotic-like changes was based on the analysis of bone porosity. In order to distinguish the ribs of young individuals from those with osteoporosis-like changes (loss of bone density and deteriorated microarchitecture), a scale of mammoth rib porosity has been constructed. Comparison of the physical condition of mammoths from the examined sites has been conducted.