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A Case of Gigantism from Ancient Rome

2/21/2015

2 Comments

 
PictureA comparison of the humerus (upper arm bone) from a skeleton of an individual with pituitary gigantism (T.30) with a "normal" male from Ancient Rome (taken from Figure 1 of Minozzi et al. 2012).
I came across this short paper* from 2012 interpreting a large skeleton from Imperial Rome as a case of pituitary gigantism.  The stature of the individual, a young male, was estimated to be around 202 cm (about 6’8”).

The authors note several things about the remains:

  • the large size of the bones (long bone lengths over 5 standard deviations from the mean of the population)
  • hyperostosis (thickening) of the frontal bone of the skull
  • enlargement of the area inside the skull where the pituitary gland would have been
  • a wide and long mandible

While the amount of dental wear and the stage of fusion of the cranial sutures were consistent with an individual over the age of 20, it is clear that some of the long bones and vertebrae had not yet stopped growing.  In combination with a presumed enlarged pituitary gland, the large size of the bones and their apparent delayed fusion suggests an overgrowth syndrome (a genetic disorder associated with abnormal body growth) that began during childhood.

The authors state that “this case represents an extraordinary discovery, for the first time documenting gigantism in a complete ancient skeleton.” The paper has a nice figure showing the humerus and tibia in comparison to corresponding bones from a “normal” male (giantologists: note the presence of a scale and the plan view perspective of the photograph that makes it clear how big the bones actually are).  The short length of the paper means it contains frustratingly few details, however: there is no explanation of how stature was estimated, no metric data are provided, and we are not given much information about which epiphyses are incompletely fused (some do not fuse completely until after age 20 under normal circumstances).

*Minozzi, Simona, Walter Pantano, Franceso di Gennaro, Gino Fornaciari, and Paola Catalano. 2012. Pituitary Disease from the Past: A Rare Case of Gigantism in Skeletal Remains from the Roman Imperial Age. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 97(12):4302-4303.


2 Comments
Micah Ewers
3/4/2015 12:00:33 pm

Good stuff.

The full paper and osteological assesment, bone lengths, etc of this Roman youth can be found here: http://www.academia.edu/4971104/_The_Roman_Giant_Overgrowth_Syndrome_in_Skeletal_Remains_from_the_Imperial_Age

It should be noted that the tomb this skeleton was found in measured 2.6 meters long, (8 ft 6 in.) and stuck out from the rest of the tombs in the cemetery. The COMPLETE skeleton was found in supine position, but no crown to heel measurement is recorded in the paper, which I find odd.

The height was estimated using Trotter and Gleser for the long bones, 202 cm - 6 ft 8. I actually think the individual may have been several inches taller than this, as his femur measured 60.5 cm, or almost 24 inches! His tibia, maximal length 48.5 cm, 19-1/4 inches. I should note, These are the lower extremities of a man over seven feet tall, when I compared these to all the pathological skeletons of giants catalgued in Europe and America.

If I were a betting man, I'd say the in-situ skeletal length in supine positin, crown to talus would have indicated an individual over 7 ft. tall, and that Trotter & Gleser like most regression models, tend to under-estimate super tall folks by inches, even half a foot or so.

That being said, even if the individual was 6 ft 8 and had exaggerated length of the lower extremities as one sees in persons with Marfan's syndrome, the authors state to the contrary, the individual was quite proportionate -- And likely not yet done growing. The limb bones all indicated an age of 15 to 24, so he was probably a teenager! So, I'll say he was probably 7'0 ft maybe even 7 ft 4, and if not, probably would have reached a similar height had he completed his growth by mid -late 20's. But that's just my 2 cents, and I am no anatomist ;) Again, good post!

Reply
Micah Ewers
3/5/2015 03:39:15 am

Trotter and Gleser: 2.38 x Femur +61.41
Pearson 1890: 81.3+1.88 x Femur
Dupertuis & Hadden: 2.238 x Femur +69
Fordisc 2.0 Caucasian: 2.32 x Femur +65.53
Feldesman et al 1992: Femur x 3.74
Pearson: Femur x 3.7

The range of stature estimates for the Roman giant using above models based on max. femur length is 6 ft 5 to 7 ft 5 -- a foot. I tend to think the higher estimates are closer to reality.

Using my own apprx femur length of 19.5 inches, the above models predicted my stature at about 180 cm, when in fact I am 183 -184. Feldesman's ratio would place my height at 185.24 cm, a slight overestimation.



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