Osteomyelitis in Quaternary mammal from the Rio Grande do Norte State, Brazil

The discovery, description and interpretation of paleopathologies in fossil materials are essential in answering several paleobiological questions. However, paleopathologies have been poorly studied in fossil vertebrates from the Quaternary deposits of Brazil. This paper describes a pathological lesion in a gomphothere humerus collected in a natural tank deposit from the late Pleistocene of Northeastern Brazil based on a macroscopic and radiological analysis. The lesion shows features indicative of osteomyelitis, such as a well-developed cloaca and abscesses, thus, it was possible to suggest tuberculosis as a potential source of the osteomyelitis, though a conclusive diagnosis is not feasible. Other putative causes such as pyogenic osteomyelitis can be discarded based on the evidence at hand. This is the first case of osteomyelitis reported for gomphotheres.