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Diagnosis and Surgical Treatment of Human Brucellar Spondylodiscitis

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Spondarthritis in the triassic.

Juan Carlos Cisneros¹, Uiara Gomes Cabral, Frikkie de Beer

¹Centro de Ciências da Natureza, Universidade Federal do Piauí, Teresina, Brazil. juan.cisneros@ufpi.edu.br

|October 27, 2010

Summary

This study reports the earliest evidence of spondarthritis (a form of arthritis) in a Lower Triassic carnivorous reptile fossil. This finding pushes back the known fossil record of arthritis by nearly 100 million years.

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Area of Science:

Paleontology
Vertebrate Paleontology
Paleopathology

Background:

Arthritis evidence is documented in the fossil record, but scarce for pre-Cenozoic reptiles.
This study focuses on a rare case of spondarthritis in an ancient reptile.

Purpose of the Study:

To report the discovery of spondarthritis in a Lower Triassic archosaurian reptile.
To establish the earliest known occurrence of arthritis in the fossil record.

Main Methods:

Macroscopic examination of a vertebral series from a Lower Triassic carnivorous archosaurian reptile.
Neutron tomography to confirm macroscopic findings and detail intervertebral disc ossification.

Main Results:

Diagnosis of spondarthritis supported by ossification of the annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus.
The specimen dates to the Lower Triassic (approximately 245 million years ago).

Conclusions:

The presence of spondarthritis in this specimen represents the earliest evidence of any arthritis form in the fossil record.
This finding predates the previous oldest report by nearly 100 million years.
Spondarthritis may have contributed to the animal's death.