Cribra Cranii, a Skull Condition Said to be of Racial or Geographical Nature

Porotic hyperostosis: A new perspective

“…The frequency then increases during the Neolithic (Angel, 1978) or with the adoption of agriculture (Lallo et al, 1977;Cohen and Armelagos, 1984). Although the picture becomes very complex, there does appear to be a general reduction in prevalence towards the 20th century (Angel, 1978;Hengen, 1971;Henschen, 1961). Porotic hyperostosis occurs in skeletal collections from every country and continent, but Hengen's analysis of over 5,000 skulls shows that the closer the country of origin is to the equator, the greater the incidence of porotic hyperostosis.…”

Cribra Orbitalia: A Possible Sign of Anaemia in Pre‐ and Post‐Contact Crania from Australia and Papua New Guinea

“…If this is so it would seem that the frequency of cribra orbitalia does follow the trend in the incidence of anaemia as diagnosed by the above authors, that is, greater frequencies in coastal communities. Except for a completely meaningless percentage offered by Henschen (1961 see Table 3) and the 50% frequency found by Pietrusewsky (1976) this survey is the first of its kind to be carried out on material from Papua New Guinea. Therefore, no comparison with other surveys is possible at the present, but further examination of material of known origin within this region would be of great value in confirming or contradicting data put forward here.…”

“…Works on bone pathology ignore it altogether, perhaps because cribra orbitalia reflects no recognizable morphological or behavioural symptoms or is not seen to be associated with pathologies diagnosed by other criteria. It has been suggested that it does not occur in modem populations (Henschen 1961) and therefore does not arise in pathology in the modern context. It is physical or biological anthropologists, dealing with ancient skeletal populations, who have been most responsible for drawing attention to the phenomenon.…”

“…Meller-Christensen (1953) supported this idea but added that other pathologies such as leprosy might be responsible. Since the early 1950s malnourishment, avitaminosis and/or anaemia have been suggested as being conditions under which high frequencies of cribra orbitalia might have been developed (Henschen 1961;Meller-Christensen and Sandison 1963;Angel 1964;Nathan and Haas 1966a;Zaino and Zaino 1975).…”

Spongy Bones in Prehistoric America

“…Similarly, although "uncommon filaments" exhibiting "generally poor preservation" have been detected in a Conophyton of Early Riphean age (7), diverse, well-preserved microfossils have not previously been reported from such stromatolites. Thus, there has been little evidence to suggest whether fossil Conophyton was produced by the same mechanisms as its modern analog (2) or to indicate whether the occurrence of such fossil forms might reflect the presence of an atypical, and possibly Precambrian-restricted, biologic group. The 143 …”