Brothwell Digging Up Bones Pdf Download
Marziabo Frechette
This particular wolverine was numbered K981.02 and can be found in the zooarchaeological collections of the University of Alberta. Nothing was known about her, other than she had been donated from the Alberta Game Farm in 1981. The skeleton was complete and due to the smallish sagittal crest and lack of a baculum, I determined it was a female. All her epiphyses were completely fused so she was definitely an adult. And from the looks of her, she was likely a very mature female. Literally from her head to her paws she was riddled with pathologies like cracked teeth, extreme osteophyte growth, infection, and healed trauma.
Injuries to the front paws would be expected in a wolverine. The swollen appearance of some of the phalanges, caused by a periosteal bone reaction, could have been caused by trauma or infection. In the wild wolverines use their strong and large front paws for digging. If something had pierced the paw of the wolverine while digging, for example a sharp rock or stick, the trauma could have been deep enough to affect the periosteum and trigger bone formation. Alternatively, a superficial cut to the paw may have become infected and that infection may have triggered a periosteal bone reaction in which new bone was formed. Because the bone was still slightly porous in appearance and not completely remodelled, these pathologies were still the stages of healing, suggesting they had been suffered a few months before death.
The osteophytes seen above the canines in the maxilla are puzzling, though the predominantly scavenging lifestyle of the wolverine may be accountable. Wolverine jaws are incredibly strong and made for the ability to crunch through bone. If a wolverine was eating a fresh kill, either made by itself or another predator, the bones of the carcass would still be relatively soft and likely not produce sharp, jagged splinters. If a wolverine was eating a carcass that had been dead for a few days, however, the bones would be less soft and more likely to produce sharp splinters. Wolverine K981.02 may have produced bone splinters by biting into a scavenged bone. These splinters may have been sharp enough to pierce the gums and scrape the maxillary bone just above the canines, triggering a periosteal response resulting in osteophyte growth. A bacterial infection may also explain the osteophytes, using the same idea of bone splinters wounding the mouth. Bacteria entering these wounds may have resulted in an infection triggering osteophyte growth. Dental disease, such as caries and periapical abscesses were not observed and thus not considered a cause for these osteophytes.
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