Palaeontologia Electronica palaeo-electronica.org Healed antler fracture from a giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus) from the Pleistocene in Poland Kamilla Pawłowska, Krzysztof Stefaniak, and Dariusz Nowakowski ABSTRACT We evaluated the skull of an ancient giant deer with a deformity of one antler. The skull was found in the 1930s in the San River near Barycz, in southeastern Poland. Its dating (39,800±1000 yr BP) corresponds to MIS-3, when the giant deer was wide- spread in Europe. Our diagnostics for the antler included gross morphology, radiogra- phy, computed tomography, and histopathology. We noted signs of fracture healing of the affected antler, including disordered arrangement of lamellae, absence of osteons, and numerous Volkmann’s canals remaining after blood vessel loss. The antler defor- mity appears to be of traumatic origin, with a healing component. No similar evaluation process has been described previously for this species. Kamilla Pawłowska. corresponding author, Institute of Geology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Maków Polnych 16, Poznań 61-606, Poland,
[email protected] Krzysztof Stefaniak. Division of Palaeozoology, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Wrocław, Sienkiewicza 21, Wrocław 50-335, Poland,
[email protected] Dariusz Nowakowski. Department of Anthropology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Kożuchowska 6/7, Wrocław 51-631, Poland,
[email protected] Keywords: giant deer; Megaloceros giganteus; paleopathology; Pleistocene; Poland INTRODUCTION