Bones

Found a really neat bone at the creek the other day!

This is a jawbone from an opossum. It’s pretty weathered and worn but see all of those tiny round depressions and holes in the bone? They weren’t caused by the elements—those were made by a parasite while the animal was still alive!

This opossum was infected with the Besnoitia darlingi parasite. This parasite creates hundreds if not thousands of tiny cysts in the host animal’s body—in the organs, in the muscles, and even in the bone.

If you’ve followed me for a while you’ve probably seen me post about this particular pathology before because I already have a couple more complete opossum skulls in my collection which also show damage from the Besnoitia darlingi parasite.

This skull came from a dead opossum I found on my property many years ago. Its entire skeleton is pitted with these countless tiny holes—it’s one of the more severe cases I’ve ever seen.

By comparison, this skull displays a much milder case with only a few of the holes present.

Pretty gnarly stuff! I’m excited to have another example to add to my collection.