A prehistoric case of developmental defects of the spine in a young adult female from the Atacama Desert

摘要

We report the case of a female individual from an archaeological site from the Late Intermediate Period (ca. 1000-1400 AD) of the Azapa Valley in the far north of Chile. The spine presents several pathologies, including a triple hemivertebrae involving T7, T8, and T10 and the fusion of axis-C3. We consider that these bone anomalies could be related to Klippel-Feil syndrome.