New paleopathological findings from the Quaternary of the Brazilian Intertropical Region expand the distribution of joint diseases for the South American megafauna.

Objective: To evaluate pathological changes in fossils from the Brazilian Intertropical Region (BIR), expanding the records of previously reported diseases for representatives of the Quaternary South American megafauna, including taxa not studied in previous works.

Materials And Methods: We carried out a thorough macroscopic analysis of fifteen unpublished specimens belonging to representatives of the Quaternary megafauna of BIR to identify evidence of pathological alterations.

Results: Alterations included: osteophytes in Toxodontidae, Megatheridae and E.

Spinal fracture reveals an accident episode in Eremotherium laurillardi shedding light on the formation of a fossil assemblage.

The Toca das Onças cave is one of the most important Quaternary mammal deposits of Brazil. Two different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the preservation mode of its skeletal remains: either the animals climbed down into the cave, or it could have functioned as a natural trap. Evaluation of pathological modifications on three articulated vertebrae of a single adult giant ground sloth Eremotherium laurillardi reveals a particular type of bone fracture caused by compressive force on the vertebral column, which split the vertebral bodies in the sagittal plane.

Neck osteoarthritis in Eremotherium laurillardi (Lund, 1842; Mammalia, Xenarthra) from the Late Pleistocene of Brazil.

Paleopathological analyses of Brazilian Quaternary mammals remain scarce. However, this type of study can shed light on several paleoecological issues in vertebrate paleobiology and taphonomy. Here, we describe and diagnose a pathology on an axis of a ground sloth Eremotherium laurillardi (Lund, 1842) from Pernambuco State, Brazil.

Arthritis in a glyptodont (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Cingulata).

Arthritic lesions have been frequently diagnosed in the fossil record, with spondyloarthropathy (a type of erosive and pan-mammalian arthritis) being one of the most common types described to date for mammals, though not restricted to this group. Here, we identify spondyloarthropathy in fossil bones from the late Pleistocene in Brazil assignable to a large glyptodont individual. Bone erosions in the peripheral joints (viz.