Strongyloides ferreirai Rodrigues, Vicente & Gomes, 1985 (Nematoda, Rhabdiasoidea) in rodent coprolites (8,000-2,000 years BP), from archaeological sites from Piaui, Brazil.
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Trichuris trichiura eggs in human coprolites from the archaeological site of "Furna do Estrago", Brejo da Madre de Deus, Pernambuco, Brazil.
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Paleoparasitology of schistosomiasis.
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Parasitism, the diversity of life, and paleoparasitology.
The parasite-host-environment system is dynamic, with several points of equilibrium. This makes it difficult to trace the thresholds between benefit and damage, and therefore, the definitions of commensalism, mutualism, and symbiosis become worthless. Therefore, the same concept of parasitism may encompass commensalism, mutualism, and symbiosis. Parasitism is essential for life. Life emerged as a consequence of parasitism at the molecular level, and intracellular parasitism created evolutive events that allowed species to diversify. An ecological and evolutive approach to the study of parasitism is presented here. Studies of the origin and evolution of parasitism have new perspectives with the development of molecular paleoparasitology, by which ancient parasite and host genomes can be recovered from disappeared populations. Molecular paleoparasitology points to host-parasite co-evolutive mechanisms of evolution traceable through genome retrospective studies.
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Analysis of ancient DNA from coprolites: a perspective with random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction approach.
The aim of this work was to determine approaches that would improve the quality of ancient DNA (aDNA) present in coprolites to enhance the possibility of success in retrieving specific sequence targets. We worked with coprolites from South American archaeological sites in Brazil and Chile dating up to 7,000 years ago. Using established protocols for aDNA extraction we obtained samples showing high degradation as usually happens with this kind of material. The reconstructive polymerization pretreatment was essential to overcome the DNA degradation and the serial dilutions helped with to prevent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) inhibitors. Moreover, the random amplified polymorphic DNA-PCR has been shown to be a reliable technique for further experiments to recover specific aDNA sequences.
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The state of the art of paleoparasitological research in the Old World.
Paleoparasitology in the Old World has mainly concerned the study of latrine sediments and coprolites collected from mummified bodies or archaeological strata, mostly preserved by natural conditions. Human parasites recovered include cestodes, trematodes, and nematodes. The well preserved conditions of helminth eggs allowed paleoepidemiological approaches taking into account the number of eggs found by archaeological stratum. Tentatively, sanitation conditions were assessed for each archaeological period.
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First paleoparasitological study of an embalming rejects jar found in Saqqara, Egypt.
For the first time, a jar of embalming rejects was studied in search for helminth parasite eggs. This kind of jar was used to put discarded material by Egyptian embalmers during mummification process. Ascaris lumbricoides and Taenia saginata eggs were found in the linen and strip fragment contents of the jar, dated of 2,715-2,656 years ago.
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The presence of Fasciola hepatica (liver-fluke) in humans and cattle from a 4,500 year old archaeological site in the Saale-Unstrut valley, Germany.
During an excavation of a site of the corded ware culture in the Saale-Unstrut-Valley (ca. 3000 BC) in Germany, a soil sample from the pelvis of a human skeleton was studied under palaeoparasitological aspects. Eggs of the trematode Fasciola hepatica and of the nematode genus Capillaria were found. This is the first case of a direct association of a F. hepatica-infestation to both a prehistoric human skeleton and domesticated animal remains. Sheep and cattle bones were present at the same site and F. hepatica eggs were found in bovine samples. This strongly points toward an existing infection cycle, involving humans as a final host.
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Prehistoric tuberculosis in america: adding comments to a literature review.
Tuberculosis is a prehistoric American human disease. This paper reviews the literature and discusses hypotheses for origins and epidemiological patterns of prehistoric tuberculosis. From the last decades, 24 papers about prehistoric tuberculosis were published and 133 cases were reviewed. In South America most are isolated case studies, contrary to North America where more skeletal series were analyzed. Disease was usually located at the deserts of Chile and Peru, Central Plains in USA, and Lake Ontario in Canada. Skeletal remains represent most of the cases, but 16 mummies have also been described. Thirty individuals had lung disease, 19 of them diagnosed by the ribs. More then 100 individuals had osseous tuberculosis and 26 also had it in other organs. As today, transmission of the infection and establishment of the disease were favored by cultural and life-style changes such as sedentarization, crowding, undernutrition, use of dark and insulated houses, and by the frequency of interpersonal contacts. The papers confirm that despite previous perceptions, tuberculosis seems to have occurred in America for millennia. It only had epidemiological expression when special conditions favored its expansion. Occurring as epidemic bursts or low endemic disease, it had differential impact on groups or social segments in America for at least two millennia.
Americas↗
A case of megacolon in Rio Grande valley as a possible case of Chagas disease.
We have been searching for evidence of Chagas disease in mummified human remains. Specifically, we have looked for evidence of alteration of intestinal or fecal morphology consistent with megacolon, a condition associated with Chagas disease. One prehistoric individual recovered from the Chihuahuan Desert near the Rio Grande exhibits such pathology. We present documentation of this case. We are certain that this individual presents a profoundly altered large intestinal tract and we suggest that further research should focus on confirmation of a diagnosis of Chagas disease. We propose that the prehistoric activity and dietary patterns in Chihuahua Desert hunter/gatherers promoted the pathoecology of Chagas disease.
Chagas Disease↗
Pathoecology of Chiribaya parasitism.
The excavations of Chiribaya culture sites in the Osmore drainage of southern Peru focused on the recovery of information about prehistoric disease, including parasitism. The archaeologists excavated human, dog, guinea pig, and llama mummies. These mummies were analyzed for internal and external parasites. The results of the analysis and reconstruction of prehistoric life from the excavations allows us to interpret the pathoecology of the Chiribaya culture.
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[Oxyuriasis and prehistoric migrations].
Parasite findings in archeological material have made it possible to trace the dispersion of infectious agents and their human hosts in ancient times. These findings allow us to re-examine theories proposed at the beginning of the century concerning transpacific contacts that Asian populations may have had with South America. This has been the case, for example, with hookworm eggs found in archeological material dating up to 7,000 years before present. Because of the increase in scientific production in this area, it has now become necessary to undertake syntheses that assess the state of the art and propose workable paleoepidemological models of the prehistoric dispersion of human parasitoses. Based on findings of Enterobius vermicularis eggs in archeological material in the Americas, the present study is an effort in this direction. Unlike the hookworm, the pinworm does not require a soil cycle in order to be transmitted from one host to another, thereby meaning that its persistence in a given human population does not depend on climatic conditions. Thus, it could have been brought from the old to the new continent, possibly by human migrations across the Bering Strait. This may explain the greater geographical dispersion and dissemination of these findings in North America from 10,000 yrs B.P. till today. In South America, on the other hand, archeological findings have only confirmed existence of Enterobius vermicularis eggs within the Andean region, with findings located specifically in Chile and northern Argentina. Although a large number of samples have been examined, no such eggs have been found in coprolites in Brazil. The paper discusses models that account for the known distribution of this parasitosis in prehistoric populations.
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[The archeology of human aggressiveness: violence from a paleo-epidemiological perspective].
Acute traumatic injuries provide direct evidence that is used in studies of violence in the past. When analyzed from a paleo-epidemiological perspective and in conjunction with data from the material culture, these injuries are an important tool in the interpretation of human aggressive behavior. The latter, which seems to underlie human nature itself, has been recorded as far back as the remote time of man's ancestral hominids and in any type of social organization. By studying the pattern and distribution of blow marks and other signs of physical aggression, we contribute to our understanding not only of the emergence, use, motives, and impact of violence down through time but also of its continuance today.
Anthropology↗
Effect of premature sagittal suture closure on craniofacial morphology in a prehistoric male Hopi.
Scaphocephaly is caused by premature sagittal suture closure. It restricts medial-lateral growth of the cranial vault which appears longer and narrower than normal. We examined how this natural malformation affected morphology of the cranial base and face. A prehistoric adult male Hopi with scaphocephaly was compared to 19 normal male Hopi (Old Walpi Series, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL). Three-dimensional coordinates of 53 landmarks were recorded on the cranial vault, cranial base, and face. Finite element scaling analysis was used to test for significant differences between the scaphocephalic and normal individuals in craniofacial morphology. Finite element scaling results indicated that scaphocephaly has a profound effect on cranial vault morphology. However, morphology of the cranial base and face were only slightly affected and, typically, are within the normal range of variation for the sample. An abnormality in the cranial base is not associated with scaphocephaly in this individual.
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Medieval example of cleft lip and palate from St. Gregory's Priory, Canterbury.
An archaeologically retrieved skeleton from medieval Canterbury possibly of the late eleventh or twelfth century, displays clear evidence of cleft lip and palate. A case of cleft palate dating from the seventh century, is known from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Burwell. This is the first evidence for both cleft lip and palate in British archaeological material. The individual had survived into adulthood. Apart from an odontome, there was no osseous evidence of any other abnormalities. Artistic evidence of cleft lip dates to the fourth century B.C. and surgical intervention (A.D. 390) is known from China.
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Crab louse infestation in pre-Columbian America.
Until now, Pthirus pubis infestation in ancient human populations had only been recorded in the Old World. We found crab lice on South American mummified bodies from the Atacama Desert region. Crab louse eggs were found attached to the pubic hairs of a 2,000-yr-old Chilean mummy. Well-preserved adults were found in sediment and clothing from a Peruvian mummy dated 1,000 yr ago. Paleoparasitological evidence expands the knowledge of the distribution of this ectoparasite in ancient populations. As with many other parasites, pubic lice recorded in Andean populations show the antiquity of this parasite in the New World. It is likely that P. pubis entered the continent with early human migration to the New World.
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Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and Cyclospora in ancient Peruvians.
Twenty-two coprolites of human origin, collected from excavations along the north-central coast of Peru, were examined using fluorescent microscopy for the presence of fecal parasites, with emphasis on Cryptosporidium sp., Giardia sp., and Cyclospora sp. Three samples were positive. One coprolite dated between ca. 2,375 and 1,525 BC contained Giardia sp. cysts. This coprolite corresponded to the Peruvian preceramic period. Another positive coprolite ca. AD 770-830 corresponded to Epoch 3 of the Middle Horizon and contained Cryptosporidium sp. oocysts. The third positive coprolite (corresponding to the Middle Horizon. ca. AD 500-900) contained Giardia sp. cysts. This report demonstrates that Giardia sp. and Cryptosporidium sp. were present in Peruvian coastal populations for at least 4,300 and 1,100 BP.
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Paleoparasitological analysis of coprolites from K2, an Iron Age archaeological site in South Africa: the first finding of Dicrocoelium sp. eggs.
Until now, Dicrocoelium sp. eggs have only been recorded from European and 1 North American archaeological sites. We present evidence for the first record of Dicrocoelium sp. from an African archaeological site. A paleoparasitological study was conducted on 7 coprolite samples from K2, a Late Iron Age site on the farm Greefswald, in the Northern Province of South Africa. Standard parasitological analysis revealed the presence of Dicrocoelium sp. and Trichuris sp. eggs. Today, the parasite does not occur in this region. Trichurid eggs are a relatively common find in paleoparasitological analysis. The presence of Dicrocoelium sp. provides new clues about the antiquity of this parasite, as well as aspects of ancient environment, climate, and interactions among humans, animals, and parasites.
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