Figure 1. Image of one of the corridors of the Catacombs.

Have humans always suffered from the same kinds of health issues? When we age, do we experience the same aches and pains as our ancestors? Did our joints become stiff and painful back in the 1700s, just like they still do today? Researchers in Germany and Italy posed this question and attempted to answer it by scanning the hip bones of Sicilian friars from the 18^th and 19^th centuries. They looked for markers of osteoarthritis in the mummified remains of these former clergymen, and have now concluded that a specific type of bone marker, herniation pits on the femoral neck, should be considered when scientists examine remains for signs of that ailment. The results are published in this paper, “Herniation Pits in Human Mummies: A CT Investigation in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Sicily.” You can see a larger version of the image here.

Abstract

Herniation pits (HPs) of the femoral neck were first described in a radiological publication in 1982 as round to oval radiolucencies in the proximal superior quadrant of the femoral neck on anteroposterior radiographs of adults. In following early clinical publications, HPs were generally recognized as an incidental finding. In contrast, in current clinical literature they are mentioned in the context of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) of the hip joint, which is known to cause osteoarthritis (OA). The significance of HPs in chronic skeletal disorders such as OA is still unclear, but they are discussed as a possible radiological indicator for FAI in a large part of clinical studies.

In this paleoradiological study we examined a sample of mummies from the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Sicily, by a mobile computed tomography (CT) scanner. Evaluation of the CT examinations revealed HPs in six out of 16 (37.5%) adult male mummies.

The first aim of this study was to compare the characteristics of HPs shown in our mummy collection to the findings described in clinical literature. Thereby CT evaluation revealed that their osseous imaging characteristics are in accordance, consisting of round to oval subcortical lesions at the anterior femoral neck, clearly demarcated by a sclerotic margin.

The second aim was to introduce HPs to the paleoradiological and paleopathological methodology as an entity that underwent a renaissance from an incidental finding to a possible radiological indicator of FAI in the clinical situation. As FAI plays an important role in the development of OA of the hip, which is a very common finding in human skeletal remains, HPs should always be considered in paleoradiological evaluation of hip joint diseases.

Citation: Panzer S, Piombino-Mascali D, Zink AR (2012) Herniation Pits in Human Mummies: A CT Investigation in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Sicily. PLoS ONE 7(5): e36537. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036537

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Image showing Lake Alchichica's Stromatolites

Happy holidays from Lake Alchichica!

In addition to holding the title for deepest natural lake in Mexico, Lake Alchichica can also claim some other unique titles. It’s the largest of the lakes in Mexico’s crater-made Oriental Basin , for example, and also boasts the extremely high pH of 8.7-10.0.

The lake also has a remarkable amount of stromatolites, which are kind of stalagmites except they are made by microorganisms and they look like they are from another planet.

The authors of “Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Community Structure in Field and Cultured Microbialites from the Alkaline Lake Alchichica (Mexico) ” investigated these stromatolites, looking specifically at why they tend to crop up in highly alkaline environments.

Also, please permit me a moment of holiday spirit here: doesn’t the schematic sort of look like half of an outer-space Christmas tree?

Here is what they found:

Abstract:

The geomicrobiology of crater lake microbialites remains largely unknown despite their evolutionary interest due to their resemblance to some Archaean analogs in the dominance of in situ carbonate precipitation over accretion. Here, we studied the diversity of archaea, bacteria and protists in microbialites of the alkaline Lake Alchichica from both field samples collected along a depth gradient (0–14 m depth) and long-term-maintained laboratory aquaria. Using small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene libraries and fingerprinting methods, we detected a wide diversity of bacteria and protists contrasting with a minor fraction of archaea. Oxygenic photosynthesizers were dominated by cyanobacteria, green algae and diatoms.

Cyanobacterial diversity varied with depth, Oscillatoriales dominating shallow and intermediate microbialites and Pleurocapsales the deepest samples. The early-branching Gloeobacterales represented significant proportions in aquaria microbialites. Anoxygenic photosynthesizers were also diverse, comprising members of Alphaproteobacteria and Chloroflexi. Although photosynthetic microorganisms dominated in biomass, heterotrophic lineages were more diverse. We detected members of up to 21 bacterial phyla or candidate divisions, including lineages possibly involved in microbialite formation, such as sulfate-reducing Deltaproteobacteria but also Firmicutes and very diverse taxa likely able to degrade complex polymeric substances, such as Planctomycetales, Bacteroidetes and Verrucomicrobia.

Heterotrophic eukaryotes were dominated by Fungi (including members of the basal Rozellida or Cryptomycota), Choanoflagellida, Nucleariida, Amoebozoa, Alveolata and Stramenopiles. The diversity and relative abundance of many eukaryotic lineages suggest an unforeseen role for protists in microbialite ecology. Many lineages from lake microbialites were successfully maintained in aquaria. Interestingly, the diversity detected in aquarium microbialites was higher than in field samples, possibly due to more stable and favorable laboratory conditions. The maintenance of highly diverse natural microbialites in laboratory aquaria holds promise to study the role of different metabolisms in the formation of these structures under controlled conditions.