Paleopathology in Brazilian fossil vertebrates: a review

ABSTRACT

Palaeopathology is the science that seeks to understand the pathological processes in fossils and mummies. Such understanding ranges from identifying diseases and how they work to raising hypotheses on how these illnesses have affected the individual’s life and even that of an entire community. In this sense, there has been about Brazilian palaeopathology since 1990; however, only in the last decade has the theme gained prominence and been explored. Thus, this review of palaeopathologies in Brazilian terrestrial vertebrates presents an overview of more than 20 diseases that affected approximately seven groups of those animals, distributed from the Palaeozoic (Eopermian) to the Cenozoic (Quaternary). The development of each disease and the possible impacts caused on the lives of the affected wildlife were analysed for each illness, as well as the techniques used by each researcher and the notes they made. Some of the identified pathologies extend geographically and chronologically several diseases previously restricted to only a few groups of vertebrates and/or regions of the globe. Besides these Palaeopathological studies help in understanding how the pathology altered the biomechanics of a given animal, in establishing ecological relationships, and many other arrangements.

KEYWORDS:

• Illness
• disease development
• computed tomography scan
• palaeoecology
• biomechanics
• quality of life

Acknowledgments

To the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to enriching the work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).