Abstract
Spondyloarthropathy is recognized as far back as the Permian, 300 million years before present, increased in prevalence over geologic and modern time and is now essentially trans-mammalian in distribution. Four aspects allow spondyloarthropathy to be studied across phylogenetic lines and through time: Stability of disease characteristics and its spectrum, occurrence sufficiently early in life to for remains to be identified, absence of bias in skeletal preservation and lack of significant effect on organismal survival. Identified in mammal-like reptiles, dinosaurs and other more recent reptiles, it is with mammals that the disease became endemic. It strongly penetrated some early mammal lineages which were short-lived, in contrast to its geometric increase in population penetrance over geologic time. Prevalence increased seven fold in horses, rhinoceros and non-human primates and its current occurrence is independent of captive or free-ranging status. In addition to inflicting musculoskeletal morbidity, the disease is associated with behavior changes, some possibly related to interferon modulation. Spondyloarthropathy is considered a disease and rightly so, given its impact on mobility, health and behavior. However, it seems paradoxical that a phenomenon which has such negative effects would persist, let alone increase in population penetrance.
Highlights
Inflammatory arthritis has a skeletal signature which has not undergone significant variation during the passage through geologic time and across the phylogenetic spectrum of reptiles and placental and marsupial mammals [1]
How can a disease be studied, today, and through geologic time? Four major issues pertain: The first is the stability of disease characteristics and their variation
Do individuals with the disease have a different taphonomic experience? Are their remains found in a different location than individuals without the disease? Does the disease alter the remains to reduce preservation of sentinel elements? The answer for these questions appears to be negative for all four questions [1, 6,7,8, 10, 11], supporting confidence in examining the paleo-epidemiology of spondyloarthropathy, its character and penetrance across phylogeny and through geologic time
Summary
Spondyloarthropathy is recognized as far back as the Permian, 300 million years before present, increased in prevalence over geologic and modern time and is essentially trans-mammalian in distribution. While trans-mammalian in distribution, most mammalian fossils either represents fossils in which low penetrance requires unrealistic sample sizes, are insufficiently represented or pertinent skeletal elements are not clearly demarcated or insufficiently researched [1] Some early mammals such as the Eocene [ranging from 56 to 33.9 million years before present (ybp)] Coryphodon are well represented in the fossil record and spondyloarthropathy was common (20%) [19].
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