The aim was to compare anthropometric profiles, body composition, and somatotypes of female volleyball players grouped according to player status (National League Divisions) and function. The study assessed 62 volleyball players and 12 beach volleyball players (mean age, 23.58, s = 7.74 years). Anthropometric measures included height, body mass, body circumferences and diameters, adipose skinfold thickness. Data processing using a dietetic software package provided body mass index, fat mass percentage, arm muscular area, thigh muscular area, and somatotype. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS Statistics version 22. Division B volleyball players were taller than those in Division C (169.

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In the collective imagination derived from scientific and popular literature, Triceratops often faced each other in combat. Thus, from the second half of the twentieth century, these ceratopsids were described as pugnacious animals. This arises primarily from the interpretation of extracranial fenestrae in ceratopsids being the result of combat trauma. However, the diagnosis of the traumatic nature of these anatomical variants of their neck frill requires evidence of bone healing and remodelling by microscopy analysis. Here, we present the case of the Triceratops horridus known as Big John, which is one of the largest specimens discovered in the Hell Creek Formation (Upper Cretaceous; MT, USA). Its right squamosal bone shows an extrafenestra with irregular margins and signs of inflammation. Microscopy analysis revealed newly formed and healing bone, with histological signs typical of the bone remodelling phase. Chemical analysis revealed sulphur that was derived from glycosaminoglycan’s and sulphated glycoproteins of the preosseous osteoid substance present in the healing phases of a bone trauma. Histological and microanalytical analyses confirm that the squamosal fenestra of Big John is the result of a traumatic event, which might indeed have occurred during combat with another Triceratops.

Blessed Egidio was a revered Catholic friar who lived in Basilicata (southern Italy) between the 15th and 16th centuries A.D. His natural mummy is preserved in the Mother Church of Laurenzana, the village where he lived. During the recent restoration and conservation of the relic, palaeopathological analysis was carried out. This revealed osteolytic lesions that affected the maxillary bones, as two injuries that were different in morphology and size that distinctly afflicted the right and left maxillae. The macroscopic and radiographic appearance of the lesion on the right maxilla and its proximity to the right premolar tooth that showed periapical granuloma suggest a diagnosis of an inflammatory odontogenic cyst (radicular cyst). The second lesion, of the left maxilla, was non‐specific and might have been the consequence of an inflammatory process. Odontogenic cysts are common in modern human populations but have been poorly described to date in ancient populations. The case of Blessed Egidio represents a new and rare case diagnosed in the field of palaeopathology.

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