Epidemiology of Anuran Pathology in the Holocene Component of the Hiscock Site: Rare or Not Survived

Abstract Bone pathology provides a window to environment and predation, allowing confident comparison of fossils and subfossils with their modern descendents. Exclusive of modern contaminated environments, the frequency of bone disease in frogs does not seem to have changed in the Holocene. Injuries were either quite rare or rarely survived. Associated fractures, however, were frequently infected. Infections appear to have been from a chronic granulomatous disease, apparently fungal in origin. The disorders reported in these fossil bones are identical to those recognized in modern frogs, validating comparison of character and frequency of bone pathology through geological time, as has been documented previously for reptiles and mammals.