Dear Lena,

I have never seen anything like that - thank you for posting a link to the photograph. The first thing that came to mind was osteopetrosis. Baker and Brothwell (1980) state that this condition (associated with a viral aetiology) starts in the tibiotarsus and does result in new bone formation within the medullary cavity. However, in photographs I have seen of this condition, there is also obvious pathological alteration to the diaphysis of the long bones in the form of irregular compact new bone formation. Whereas the diaphysis of your tibiotarsus look to be unaffected. The new bone in your photo seems very solid and uniform in morphology as well.

I am sorry I cannot help more but I hope this may help as a starting point.

Best regards

Jen Wooding

University of Bradford

--- On Wed, 11/17/10, Lena Strid <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Lena Strid <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [ZOOARCH] Pathological fowl tibiotarsus
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2010, 2:32 PM

Dear all,

I have a medieval fowl tibiotarsus where the marrow cavity has been significantly reduced by internal bone growth. It doesn't look like medullary bone, so I assume it's some sort of pathology. Has anyone seen anything similar?

http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac137/ossamentaDW/Benbilder/BFRfowltibiotarsus.jpg

Any ideas would be appreciated.
/Lena

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