Summary Stature Estimation - [LEC 12]

M2: The Biological Profile



Lecture 12
Stature Estimation
 Stature varies with time of day, taller in the morning
 People lie about their stature, living v. recorded stature
CONCEPT OF  Methods are based on populations from the early 1900s, these could
DETERMINING lead to inaccurate result with the culture of today
STATURE  There are secular trends in stature – people are taller today than
several generations ago


 Used for complete skeletons
 Measures height of…
o Skull
o All the vertebral bodies
FULLY METHOD o Femur length
o Tibia length
o Ankle height
o Add Soft Tissue Correction  inter-vertebral discs


 Used for incomplete skeletons
o High correlation between limb bone length and stature
REGRESSION o Right and left limbs about the same height
o Limb bone lengths high correlated with each other
METHOD
o Lower limb is better at estimating than the upper limb
o Using more bone reduces error


 Relate some variable in an unknown individual to a group whose
relationship
between
stature and
femur is
known
 The line
characterizes
ESTIMATING the
STATURE relationship
between to
two variables
also called the
REGRESSION
LINE




 Complete Long Bones
o Best estimate of stature
EXAMPLES OF  Other Bones
REGRESSION o Vertebrae, Hands, & Feet
METHODS o Generally higher error rate
 Fragmentary Long Bones