I happened to find the following, and thought it might be of
interest in connection with some recent discussion about vitamin
A toxicity:
One of the most important H. erectus fossils is KNM-WT
15000, a nearly complete skeleton of a 12 year old male
from a horizon about 1.6 MYBP at Nariokotome, West of
Lake Turkana. Another extraordinary fragmentary
postcranial skeleton (KNM-ER 1808) shows extensive
inflammation of the periosteum, the fibrous membrane that
surrounds bone. Widespread abnormal bone deposition has
occurred on the periosteum, a general and non-specific
tissue reaction. A popular, but not conclusive,
interpretation was that KNM-ER 1808 suffered from
hypervitaminosis of vitamin A (Walker, Leakey & Walker,
1985).
http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/anthro/people/faculty/cbramblett/ant301/thirteen.html
Todd Moody
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