Estimating body mass from postcranial variables: an evaluation of current equations using a large known-mass sample of m
- PDF / 589,271 Bytes
- 16 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 35 Downloads / 204 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Estimating body mass from postcranial variables: an evaluation of current equations using a large known-mass sample of modern humans Marina Elliott 1,2 & Helen Kurki 3 & Darlene A. Weston 4,5 & Mark Collard 1,6
Received: 22 December 2014 / Accepted: 12 May 2015 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Abstract Many inferences in palaeoanthropology and bioarchaeology rely on estimates of body mass from skeletal material. Body mass estimation is also becoming an area of interest for forensic anthropologists. The most common approach to estimating body mass from the skeleton involves measurements of the postcranium, and a number of equations have been developed for femoral head size and stature plus biiliac breadth. These equations have become standard in biological anthropology, but they have rarely been tested on individuals of known mass. In addition, the effects of several assumptions involved in the application of the equations have not been rigorously investigated. Accordingly, this study employed CT scans from a sample of 253 adult modern
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12520-015-0251-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Mark Collard [email protected] 1
Human Evolutionary Studies Program and Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada
2
Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 2008
3
Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2, Canada
4
Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada
5
Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
6
Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, St Mary’s Building, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen AB24 3UF, UK
humans of known body mass to test the accuracy of the most widely used postcranial body mass estimation equations. The results were then used to evaluate several claims concerning the performance of the equations relative to one another. Most of the equations that were tested met the criteria for acceptance as reliable estimators with the male and the combined-sex samples. However, females were not estimated as reliably. In addition, the equations did not always perform consistently or as expected. Overall, our results suggest that estimating body mass with the postcranial equations that are currently available requires more caution than is usually exercised. Keywords Osteology . Biological anthropology . Paleoanthropology . Fossil hominin . Forensic anthropology
Introduction Estimating body mass from skeletal remains is an important aspect of biological anthropology research. In palaeoanthropological and bioarchaeological contexts, body mass estimates offer one of the few ways to access key biological and behavioral information (Ruff 2002; Plavcan 2012). Estimates of mass are also often required to
Data Loading...
