Possible osteosarcoma reported from a new world elapid snake and review of reptilian bony tumors

Abstract

Cancer chiefly occurs in vertebrates. Rare in amphibians, and perhaps common in reptiles, various neoplasms and malignant cancers have been reported with erratic frequency by museums, paleontologists, veterinarians, and pet hobbyists. Unsurprisingly, most herpetofaunal diversity has never been systematically surveyed for the presence of neoplasms owing to the extreme rarity or obscurity of many species. Museum collections can fill these gaps in knowledge, especially when researchers use non-destructive techniques. In this study, we used X-ray computed tomography (CT) to discover and characterize a possible osteosarcoma of the spine in a rare South American coralsnake, Micrurus ancoralis. Two spinal vertebrae were completely fused and adjacent vertebrae showed evidence of corruption. The fused vertebrae contained a hollow inner network thought to be vascular tissue. We also review previous reports of neoplasms in the Elapidae and all bony neoplasms in non-avian reptiles. The rarely reported technique of X-ray CT for tumor discovery could greatly improve our understanding of the species diversity and perhaps underlying causes of neoplasia.

A Multi-Institutional Collaboration to Understand Neoplasia, Treatment and Survival of Snakes

“…However, these publications on snake neoplasia have typically focused only on the types of neoplasia diagnosed [10,11], the prevalence of neoplasia at a single institution or laboratory [4,12], or on an individual animal's treatment [13,14]. A type of multi-institutional study on museum specimens has been done as well as a literature review, however, this study was never able to confirm the presence of neoplasia due to the lack of confirmatory testing [15]. Other studies do exist on reporting snake neoplasia prevalence within a group of snakes, including cutaneous chromatophoromas [11,[16][17][18][19].…”

Blind snakes slink, wriggle, and bump through the pages of The Anatomical Record in a novel Special Issue

“…Some examples include: Amemiya and colleagues' studies on the crotaline snake pit receptors (Amemiya et al, 1999;Amemiya, Ushiki, Goris, Atobe, & Kusunoki, 1996); Young, Marsit, and Meltzer (1999) comparative study of the cloacal scent gland in snakes; Nakano and colleagues' study of the ultrastructure on snake infrared sensory organs (Nakano et al, 2000); Alibardi and Toni's (2005) study on the characterization of cornification proteins in the epidermis of snakes; Hofstadler-Dieques, Walter, Mierlo, and Ruduit (2005)'s creative three-dimensional reconstruction of the snake chondrocranium from histological sections; the very insightful study by Fourneaux et al (2010) examining the evolution of rudimentary eyes in various squamate reptiles including, of course, Typhlops, the blind snake; Liu and colleagues' examination of the anatomy of snake venom via a proteomics approach (Liu et al, 2010); an examination on the ultrastructure of the sea snake kidney by Sever, Rheubert, Gautreaux, Hill, and Freeborn (2012); modeling the snake esophagus to understand its function and development by Cundall et al (2014); Johnston's study on the homology of jaw musculature in snakes and lizards Johnston (2014); a most fascinating, and beautifully illustrated, study exploring the influence of sexual selection on the appearance of hemipenes (male copulatory organs) in Old World snakes (who knew?) by Andonov, Natchev, Kornilev, and Tzankov (2017); Trivino and colleagues' description of the first natural endocranial cast of a fossil snake from the Cretaceous of Patagonia (Trivino, Albino, Dozo, & Williams, 2018); Bassi, de Oliviera, Braz, and de Almeida Santos (2018)'s study on the anatomy underlying oocyte uptake in the coral snake; and Hall and colleagues' insightful study of bony tumors in snakes (Hall, Jacobs, & Smith, 2020). And that is just some of the snakes that have slid into the pages of The Anatomical Record!…”