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 [log in to unmask]