You Know You're A Paleopathologist When, Part 644:

You put a reminder on your phone to look up some info for your dissertation so that your grocery list now reads:

*apples
*green onions
*ice cream
*tuberculosis

🙄

#PhDLife #Archaeology #Paleopathology

Congenital Syphilis Was Supposed to Be a Reliable Marker. Three Children in Neolithic Vietnam Complicate That. A diagnostic assumption decades in the making may not hold outside western clinical contexts

Three children in Neolithic Vietnam show classic signs of congenital treponematosis — but the evidence points to yaws, not syphilis. A new study challenges a foundational assumption in ancient disease research. #Paleopathology #Treponematosis #Bioarchaeology www.anthropology.net/p/congenital...

Poster presentations at the Paleopathology Association Conference in Denver this year! @christinejlee.bsky.social #PPA #paleopathology #biologicalanthropology #bioarchaeology

Thankyou @mu-peter.bsky.social for sharing this!
Does disease cause aging or does aging cause disease?
A must-read framework via #ScienceDirect.
🧪 Follow @academaxjournals.bsky.social for more groundbreaking studies!

#AcadeMax #ZJU #Paleopathology #ScienceMatters

When a Skeleton Lies About Its Age The problem with reading disease from bone is that disease changes the bone you're reading

How old was this skeleton, really? A new paper argues that disease alters the very bone markers used to estimate age at death — creating a methodological loop few researchers have addressed head-on. #Paleopathology #Bioarchaeology #HumanEvolution www.anthropology.net/p/when-a-ske...

Age, Disease, or Both? A New Perspective on the Past An international study funded by the ROOTS Cluster of Excellence discusses solutions to fundamental challenges in research on ageing and disease in past societies.

At what age did a prehistoric human die? Are the pathological alterations to the skeleton due to old age or to disease? An new study discusses solutions to fundamental challenges in the field of paleopathology 👇

@uni-kiel.de @dai-weltweit.bsky.social @archanchistleic.bsky.social

#Paleopathology

Katharina Fuchs is standing at a laboratory bench covered with bones. She is holding two bones in her hands and examining them closely. Behind her stands a plastic skeleton.

At what age did a prehistoric human die? Are the pathological alterations to the skeleton due to old age or to disease? An international study discusses solutions to fundamental challenges in the field of paleopathology […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]

A Young Man in the Philippines, 2,000 Years Ago, Was Slowly Coming Apart at the Seams A Metal Period burial at Nagsabaran reveals how scurvy and hip ankylosis combined to reshape one life — and how a community responded.

A 2,000-year-old burial in the Philippines is rewriting what we know about scurvy in tropical Southeast Asia — and what ancient communities owed their most vulnerable members. #Paleopathology #HumanEvolution #Bioarchaeology www.anthropology.net/p/a-young-ma...

A Pathogen Older Than History: Tracing Treponemal Disease to Ancient Colombia A 5,500-year-old genome from the Sabana de Bogotá reshapes how scientists think about the deep history of syphilis and its relatives in the Americas

A 5,500-year-old genome from Colombia pushes the history of Treponema pallidum deep into the past, challenging simple origin stories for syphilis and revealing a long, diverse treponemal presence in the Americas. #AncientDNA #Paleopathology #HumanHistory www.anthropology.net/p/a-pathogen...

Fossil freeloaders: Rare evidence of parasitism in Ordovician Trilobites « Earth & Environmental Science# « Cambridge Core Blog A new study of from the Middle Ordovician of Estonia reveals some of the earliest evidence for parasitism in the fossil record. Olev Vinn at the University of Tartu and colleagues argue that dome and ...

www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...

A blog post on our article: dx.doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2025.10190

#Paleobiology #Trilobites #Paleoparasitology #Paleopathology

🦴 💀 🧬🦠🩺🩻🏺🕵🏼 My dear colleagues from @dai-weltweit.bsky.social have put together an outstanding program for the #PPAberlin2026 @paleopathology.bsky.social European Meeting 3-7 August! Check out events & speakers:
www.dainst.org/en/the-25th-...

#paleopathology #evolutionarymedicine
#bonesinternational

14th Century Tooth Reveals Grim Fate of Edinburgh Teen Killed by the Black Death A 14th-century teenager died from the Black Death in Edinburgh. Learn how researchers discovered the pathogen in his teeth, and how this may be the first scientific evidence of the plague in the city.

14th Century Tooth Reveals Grim Fate of Edinburgh Teen Killed by the Black Death #Science #Biology #Microbiology #BlackDeath #Archaeology #Paleopathology

A Swollen Legacy: The Byzantine Child Who Carried a Rare Bone Disease A 12th-century skeleton from Aphrodisias offers a haunting glimpse into childhood illness, medical uncertainty, and resilience in the Byzantine world.

A Byzantine child buried 900 years ago in Aphrodisias shows signs of a rare bone disease, Caffey disease, offering new insight into childhood health, care, and resilience in medieval Anatolia. #Bioarchaeology #Byzantine #Osteology #Paleopathology www.anthropology.net/p/a-swollen-...

The Wounded and the Cared For: How Ancient Patagonians Showed Humanity at the Edge of the World New research on Late Holocene hunter-gatherers in Patagonia reveals a culture of care that endured through injury, disability, and the harshest conditions on Earth.

New evidence from Patagonian hunter-gatherers shows that even in the harshest environments, care for the injured and disabled was a shared human commitment—not a luxury. #Archaeology #Paleopathology #HumanEvolution #Anthropology www.anthropology.net/p/the-wounde...

Archaeological findings reveal that Late Holocene Patagonian hunter-gatherers provided care for their injured and disabled community members, emphasizing early communal support systems. 🏞️🔬 Link: https://tinyurl.com/2ax29jhu #Paleopathology #HumanHistory #AncientSocieties

Ammonoid Paleopathology We herein review fossil examples of pathological phenomena and present a historical review, definition, and the taxonomic handling of such anomalies (forma aegra concept, symptom vs. syndrome). The described phenomena are separated in those with exogenic (injuries,...

21th chapter by Hoffmann & Keupp reviews the long #history of #ammonoid #paleopathology doi.org/10.1007/978-...

New reports fill #gaps in our #knowledge:
doi.org/10.1007/s125...
doi.org/10.7717/peer...
doi.org/10.4202/app....
doi.org/10.5710/AMGH...
doi.org/10.5194/fr-2...
doi.org/10.18261/let...

Parasites of Ammonoids Extant cephalopods are commonly infested by parasites making it plausible that ammonoids also had parasites. We review the fossil evidence of parasitic infestations in ammonoids, which, due to low preservation potential of soft-tissues in ammonoids and parasites, are...

20th chapter by De Baets et al. on #Parasites of #Ammonoids through #paleopathology: rdcu.be/eJqp7

Multiple new reports of parasite-induced #pathologies:
doi.org/10.4202/app....
doi.org/10.18261/let...
doi.org/10.5710/AMGH...

Identifying the culprits remains difficult:
doi.org/10.1007/978-...

Had the pleasure of presenting my poster at @babao2025meeting.bsky.social

My research focused on #climate and maxillary sinusitis in #roman and early medieval populations

#BABAO2025 #Archaeology #paleopathology #climateheritage

Our research group at the 4th International Congress on Roman Bioarchaeology

At #ICORB2025 in Zagreb @aszecseny.bsky.social and Krisztián Kiss shared results from the Momentum #Bioarchaeology research project exploring life and health in #Roman #Pannonia: bioarch-momentum.hu/en/news/our-...
#AncientGenomics #ancientDNA #aDNA #PopGen #biologicalanthropology #paleopathology

Fatal accidents in neonatal pterosaurs and selective sampling in the Solnhofen fossil assemblage Smyth et al. report wing injuries in neonatal pterosaurs from the Upper Jurassic Solnhofen assemblage, likely caused by storm events and supporting precocial flight ability. Taphonomic analysis reveal...

#paleopathology
#extremeweatherevents

A sad story

Some Jurassic storms were “catastrophic” for infant pterodactyls flying over Solnhofen (Germany): they fractured their humerus bones, fell to the ground and died.

OA paper

We just kicked off a citizen science project in @bocas-news.bsky.social where we’re teaming up with retired + active medical doctors to help interpret complex paleopathological cases while having fun. Our 1st session of the Ärtze-Konsil was great ✨🦴🧬 #citizenscience #paleopathology #bioarchaeology

A Disease Older Than Empire: Leprosy's Ancient American Past New evidence reveals that Mycobacterium lepromatosis, a rare cousin of the leprosy bacterium, infected people in South America 4,000 years ago

Ancient leprosy wasn’t a colonial import. 4,000-year-old genomes from Chile reveal Mycobacterium lepromatosis was already infecting Indigenous people in pre-Columbian South America. #AncientDNA #Paleopathology #Archaeology #Leprosy

Tracing Disease Along the Copper Road How Bronze Age leprosy in Oman reveals ancient mobility, social resilience, and new tools for seeing the invisible

Leprosy left its mark on Bronze Age Oman—etched not in stories, but in shattered jaws. Micro-CT reveals how disease moved along ancient trade routes, and how bones remember. #Paleopathology #Leprosy #Archaeology #HumanEvolution #BronzeAge

Diagnóstico por imágenes de probable osteomielitis en un infante de 9 meses del Brasil prehistórico: una breve historia sobre cuidados de salud antiguos | Revista Argentina de Antropología B...

Last week, I contributed to two new publications! 📚 Check out the second paper:
"Imaging diagnosis of probable osteomyelitis in a 9-month-old infant from prehistoric Brazil: A brief history of healthcare in ancient times"
👉 doi.org/10.24215/185...
#Paleopathology #Archaeology

Estimating trauma prevalence from incomplete human skeletal remains - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Estimating trauma prevalence from incomplete human skeletal remains

This week, I presented our research on skeletal trauma prevalence estimation at the Meeting of the Society for Anthropology in Kiel #bioanthropology #skeletaltrauma #paleopathology

Our 2024 OA paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415..., co-authored by @hannesrathmann.bsky.social & @matteosanton.bsky.social

NSF-Funded One paleopathology meeting in Durham, 2024

UNCG students in Venice, Italy for a study abroad course on Evolutionary Medicine and Paleopathology

UNCG students in the lab

#SustainableDevelopment #Bioarchaeology #Paleopathology #ClimateResilience #EquityInSTEM
#inclusiveeducation #ethics #ONEPaleopathology #PlanetaryHealth #ONEHealth #ClimateJustice #Grist50

Qafzeh 11 & 12: Signs of otitis media (middle ear infection), a common illness that affects the ear bones (Arensburg and Nathan 1972; Tillier 1999; Quam and Rak 2008). #InfectiousDiseases #PaleoPathology

Very proud of my PhD student Isobel Grimley, who won a prize at the @paleopathology.bsky.social meeting in Baltimore 👏👏 #paleopathology #bioarchaeology

Fossil discoveries like Dar-es-Soltane II H5 shed light not only on ancient health conditions but also on the social dynamics of care in prehistoric communities.
#Anthropology #Paleoimaging #Paleopathology