A healed femoral fracture of Threskiornis aethiopicus (Sacred Ibis) from the Animal Cemetery at Abydos, Egypt

The Bolton Museum and Archive Service collection holds an ibis mummy from Abydos, which was partially unwrapped at one time, extracting two femora. The left is anatomically complete, yet the right exhibits an oblique fracture that had healed at an angle of 90°. The radiographic examination shows that the fracture had completely united. The significant amount of bone remodelling suggests a period of months between the occurrence of the fracture and the death of the bird. There are two possible scenarios that can be derived from this evaluation: human intervention or a chance survival in the wild, both of which are possible, though difficult to prove with certainty. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.