Abstract
The authors describe the histological changes observed in a number of bone fragments which had remained submerged at a depth of 3850 metres in the Mediterranean Sea for 7 years and 10 months. The bone fragments which presented a complete skeletization were without any cellular residue while collagen fibres were still appreciable above all in the outermost circumferential lamellas of each osteonic system. No presence of extraneous biological material such as fungi, bacteria or other micro-organisms which often colonise buried bones were found on any of the bone structures examined. The bone remains moreover exhibited a notably reduced density due to the notable loss of inorganic constituents.
Highlights
The post mortem histological modifications of human bones and the time in which they are carried out have been widely described and reported in literature [1,2,3,4,5,6] but such remarks refer to buried bone remains, exposed to the action of various climactic factors and/or the micro-macro fauna [7,8], but few studies concern the modifications of bones immersed in water
For this reason it seemed useful to describe in this paper the histological modifications of human bones submerged in the Mediterranean Sea for around 8 years
As part of the recovery operation on a DC9 aircraft which had crashed into the Mediterranean 7 years and 10 months before, a number of bone fragments which could be traced to a diaphysis and/or an epiphysis of long bones were recovered among the metallic parts of the aircraft at a depth of 3850 m
Summary
The authors describe the histological changes observed in a number of bone fragments which had remained submerged at a depth of 3850 metres in the Mediterranean Sea for 7 years and 10 months. The bone fragments which presented a complete skeletization were without any cellular residue while collagen fibres were still appreciable above all in the outermost circumferential lamellas of each osteonic system. No presence of extraneous biological material such as fungi, bacteria or other micro-organisms which often colonise buried bones were found on any of the bone structures examined. The bone remains exhibited a notably reduced density due to the notable loss of inorganic constituents
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