A congenital sternum Anomaly from a late Roman burial from Mallorca, Spain.

A curious case of a congenital non fusion of the caudal portion of the sternum was found in the skeletal remains of a juvenile male recovered from a Late Roman burial from the Necropolis of Pollentia, Mallorca, Spain. No other significant changes in the skeleton or pathological disorders were observed and potentially health problems, due to this anomaly, can not be determined. This kind of congenital defect is unusual and there are a few cases reported in paleopathological literature. Despite the fact that the sternum is one of the bones of the body with a wider variety of congenital variants, generally the described cases focus on the most frequent anomalies, such as pectus excavatum or sternal aperture, whereas the rarest variations, such as sternal bifid/cleft or failure of fusion of the caudal portion are not reported.