Skeletal disease may hamper the behavior of large predators both living and extinct. In new research, paleontologists from Evidensia Academy and the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum investigated the prevalence of osteochondrosis dissecans, a developmental bone disease affecting the joints, in two Ice Age predators: the saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis) and the dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus, formerly Canis dirus). All fossilized specimens came from the Rancho La Brea fossil locality in Los Angeles, California, the United States.
Osteochondrosis is an orthopedic disease caused by a failure of the endochondral ossification in the epiphyseal plate and joint cartilage in a variety of species ranging from horses to humans.
It is associated with the complex of developmental orthopedic pathologies, causing lameness in advanced cases.
One manifestation of osteochondrosis is osteochondrosis dissecans, which is considered in the failure of cellular differentiation in growing cartilage, leading to its thickening or retention.
“While developmental skeletal diseases like osteochondrosis are well documented as markers of health in domestic animals, fewer studies have examined the extent to which they affect wild animals, even in captivity,” said Evidensia Academy researcher Hugo Schmökel and his colleagues.
“Radiographic examination of living wild animals is costly; and, to our knowledge, only a few institutions house wildlife skeletal postcranial collections large enough to permit reconstructing the prevalence of osteochondrosis or other developmental skeletal disorders in a population.”
“However, developmental skeletal diseases have been suggested to impact Smilodon fatalis, at least 2,000 individuals of which are preserved together with at least 4,000 individuals of Aenocyon dirus at the Rancho La Brea asphalt seeps in Los Angeles, California.”
In the new study, Dr. Schmökel and co-authors examined over 1,000 limb bones of Smilodon fatalis and over 500 limb…
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