Ecogeographic patterns in fetal limb proportions

Waxenbaum, Erin B.; Warren, Michael W.; Holliday, Trenton W.; Byrd, John E.; Cole, Theodore M.

doi:10.1002/ajpa.23814

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 66 publications

(127 reference statements)

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“…Auerbach, 2012; Livshits et al, 2002; Seguchi et al, 2017; Tilkens et al, 2007), and growth and development (e.g. Bareggi et al, 1996; Frelat & Mitteroecker, 2011; Temple et al, 2011; Waxenbaum et al, 2019). Huxley's (1932) allometry equation is used across disciplines, and in all three sub‐categories, to explore bivariate relationships between the feature of interest ( y ) and a size variable ( x ):

y = b x^{α},

…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An alternative size variable for allometric investigations in subadults

Chu

Stull

Sylvester

2022

American Journal of Biological Anthropology

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OBJECTIVES:Effective allometry research relies on appropriate size variables; however, two of the largest obstacles in subadult (ontogenetic) allometry research is small sample sizes and unknown dimensions. This study overcomes a barrier of ontogenetic allometry research by proposing alternative size variables that do not require additional calculations for use in subadult allometry research and retain general patterns among long bones when stature is used for size.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Diaphyseal measurements, stature, and age were collected from computed tomography (CT) and full-body radiographic images for a sample of subadults between birth and 13 years from the United States (U.S., n = 308) and South Africa (Z.A., n = 25). Nineteen alternative size variables were evaluated using reduced-major-axis regression to identify the closest one-to-one relationship to stature. The applicability across samples was then evaluated using the selected alternative size variables.RESULTS: Radius midshaft breadth (RMSB), femur midshaft breadth (FMSB), and the geometric mean of midshaft breadths (GM midshaft) yielded the closest isometric relationships to stature. Allometric relationships among long bones are maintained when using stature, FMSB, and GM midshaft as size variables for both the U.S. and Z.A. samples. DISCUSSION: A large, modern dataset facilitated an investigation into alternative size variables that can be used for single-bone ontogenetic allometry. Generalizability of the model suggests FMSB and GM midshaft are persistent across populations. This methodology identifies alternative size variables appropriate for other allometry research and offers a robust approach even when historically relied upon size variables are unknown.

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y = b x^{α},

…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An alternative size variable for allometric investigations in subadults

Chu

Stull

Sylvester

2022

American Journal of Biological Anthropology

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Estimating intralimb proportions for commingled remains

Cao,

Crema,

Pomeroy

2024

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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Intralimb proportions provide insights into growth, development, populations history, and adaptation across human groups. However, the conventional approach of calculating brachial and crural indices for individual skeletons and comparing assemblages using sample means is not feasible in commingled remains. This study aims to assess the reliability of an “aggregate method” based on the ratio of sample means of limb bone lengths as an alternative to conventionally calculated indices. We examined the correlation between the aggregate and conventional indices using data from ≥124 worldwide groups (≥2000 adults). The impact of sample size, commingling degree, and within‐group variation on the correspondence between conventional and aggregate indices was further evaluated using simulated datasets. Reliability was measured using the absolute differences between the aggregate and “true” population mean indices and the proportion of simulations producing large errors (>0.02, the average within‐group variation among observed populations). Strong correlations are observed between the aggregate and conventional indices across groups in the empirical dataset. Simulation analyses indicates that larger samples improve prediction reliability, while increased commingling and within‐group variation reduce accuracy. The aggregate method is robust when upper limb samples contain >30 bones (lower limb >50), with more than half of the bones representing proximal and distal elements from the same individuals, and the standard deviation in the index is smaller than 0.02. With sufficient sample sizes, the “aggregate method” is a reliable alternative for estimating average intralimb proportions in commingled and poorly preserved skeletal assemblages, enhancing the research potential of such collections.

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