A wolf from Gravettian site Pavlov I, Czech Republic: Approach to skull pathology

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Abstract

Objective

Describe pathological features on internal and external aspects of the skull of an ancient grey wolf.

Materials

Wolf remains that were found at the southwestern settlement Area A of Gravettian site Pavlov I.

Methods

Visual observation and description; microcomputed tomography; porosity and fragmentation indices for internal and external skull features; histological section of the fourth upper premolar tooth.

Results

Dorsally, the sagittal crest revealed bone healing and remodeling. The sagittal lesion differential diagnosis was blunt trauma with or without fracture. Ventrally, otic region pathology included severe proliferation and lysis (osteomyelitis). The pathology was not resolvable among differential (microbial) causes of osteomyelitis, although other potential etiologies were ruled out.

Conclusions

Probable first report of otic region osteomyelitis in an ancient grey wolf.

Significance

The proximity of the wolf remains to human-related findings, and presence of red ochre and shells, suggest human involvement in the burial.

Limitations

This is a single specimen with differential diagnoses that were not resolvable to a single definitive diagnosis.

Suggestions for Further Research

Further investigation of the possible anthropological significance of the burial circumstances.

Introduction

Since the 19th century, excavations at Moravian Gravettian archeological sites have yielded multiple sizes of wolves. At sites that we are studying, three groups of wolves can be observed, having large, intermediate, and small statures. The stature differences exceed criteria for sexual dimorphism, possibly by 20 % or more (Perri and Sázelová, 2016), and it seems likely that these remains represent ecologically-driven morphotypes (Larson et al., 2012; Thalmann et al., 2013; Morey, 2014; Boudadi-Maligne and Escarguel, 2014; Perri, 2016; Lupo, 2017; Pitulko and Kasparov, 2017). However, some authors suggest secondary human-driven genetic isolation as the reason for the observed morphological and dietary variation (Germonpré et al., 2012, 2015, 2016; Bocherens et al., 2015, 2019).

The Pavlov I site is an extensive Gravettian mammoth hunters’ campsite with a main cultural layer dated between 30–34 ky cal BP (Svoboda, 2016a,b). The site was excavated by two researchers in two phases: a) Bohuslav Klíma in 1952–1972 (Klíma, 1954, 1987; Svoboda ed., 1994, 1997, 2005); and b) Jiří Svoboda in 2013–2015 (Svoboda et al., 2016a, 2016b). Skeletal remains from a single wolf (Canis lupus) were recovered from Southwestern Area A. The analysis of this specimen, found alongside remnants of human cultural activity, suggests that interaction between humans and wolves may have occurred. The goal of this study is to evaluate the pathological conditions present on the wolf skeleton, as a means to explore the life of this wolf and its possible interaction with humans.

Section snippets

Relevant site description

During 2013–2015, rescue excavations at Southwestern Area A involved opening a trench with 9.0 × 5.5 m sides (Svoboda et al., 2016a, 2016b). An identified cultural layer had its uppermost depth at 2.5–3.4 m, and was deepest at 3.0–3.9 m. Recovered charcoal from the cultural layers yielded radiocarbon dates ranging from 30,495−29,564 cal BP (Beta 359288; deviation 95.4) to 33,561−32,524 cal BP (Beta 359286; deviation 95.4).

The incomplete skeleton of an adult wolf (Canis lupus) was found

Results

The remains are those of an adult Canis lupus that died at an undetermined age. The nearly-complete skull (Fig. 2) reveals asymmetric torsion. The skull is matured fully, with all permanent teeth erupted. There are visual pathological changes dorsally, involving the sagittal crest, and ventrally, involving the entire otic region.

Differential diagnosis of cranial lesions

The differential diagnosis for the morphological changes noted along the sagittal crest of the skull includes trauma or taphonomic change. Differential diagnosis of trauma would be limited here to blunt force with or without fracture, with cause unknown. The healed trauma was documented by micro-CT. Given the advanced state of healing, the event clearly preceded the otic region features by a considerable time, also precluding taphonomic cause (absence of proliferative living cells).

Several

Conclusion

Untreated and barring intervening predation, the consequences of the ventral skull pathology would have been fatal. Several factors in this evaluation provide insight into bridging paleopathology observations with modern diagnostic medicine. Having described the pathological features and considered the bone-related differential diagnosis in context, one next works toward understanding the immediate soft tissue anatomical environment. Mentally linking bone and surrounding soft tissues then

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to H. Temming, D. Plotski, and N. Stephens from the EVA MPG, Leipzig; and M. Králík from the Faculty of Science at Masaryk University. The paper was supported with Czech national institutional support [RVO: 68081758 awarded to IA CAS Brno] and Czech Academy of Sciences [Strategy AV 21 Memory in the digital age: Paleolithic site of Pavlov awarded to IA CAS Brno].

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