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Date: | Tue, 23 Jul 2002 01:18:39 -0500 |
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http://citd.scar.utoronto.ca/ANTAO1/Projects/Bogin.html
Perhaps it was the occasional (or regular?) consumption of leopard that
caused the hypervitaminosis A of the H. erectus individual from the Koobi
Fora formation, located on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana, Kenya. The
skeleton is dated to 1.6 million years B.P. (Walker et al. 1982), and
analysis
indicates that it was female and has "striking pathology" in the long bones
of the limbs. These bones have a deposit of abnormal coarse-woven bone,
up to 7 mm chick in places, above the normal skeletal tissue on the outer
surface of the bone. Walker and his colleagues consider many possible causes
for this pathological bone growth and conclude that an overconsumption of
vitamin A (hypervitaminosis A) is the most likely cause. Similar cases of
hypervitaminosis A have occurred in arctic explorers who consumed the liv-
ers of polar bear and seal. The liver stores vitamin A, and the liver of
car-
nivores, who are at the top of the food chain, usually contain the greatest
amounts of this vitamin. Walker et al. suggest that the cause of the bone
pathology in this specimen of H. erectus was due to eating the liver of car-
nivorous animals.
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