A morphometric exploration of sexual dimorphism in mammalian skeletons for applicability in archaeology
The objective of this research is to identify and analyze sexual characters in mammalian skeletons in order to develop new methods for sex determination of archaeological animal remains. The study begins with an examination of the evolutionary and developmental framework of sexual characters, and a review of the current methods used for sex classification of animal remains. The materials and methods used in this research have been designed to locate the tertiary sexual characters in the fox, dog, pig, deer, and sheep skeletons. Morphometric and osteometric analyses of 11 elements of the post-cranial skeleton (atlas, axis, glenoid, proximal humerus, distal humerus, proximal metacarpus, innominate, proximal femur, distal tibia, astragalus, proximal metatarsus) have been conducted. Shape and size differences of bones have been analyzed using the F- test of variance and canonical variates analysis for shape variables, and discriminant analysis and the two-sample t- test for metrical data, to determine significance. Eigenshape analysis, an outline-based form of morphometrics, has been implemented for comparing bone shapes. Score plots have been produced by comparing eigenshape scores to indicate shape trends formed
Ruscillo, Deborah
Remains; Classification
A morphometric exploration of sexual dimorphism in mammalian skeletons for applicability in archaeology. The objective of this research is to identify and analyze sexual characters in mammalian skeletons in order to develop new methods for sex determination of archaeological animal remains. The study begins with an examination of the evolutionary and developmental framework of sexual characters, and a review of the current methods used for sex classification of animal remains. The materials and methods used in this research have been designed to locate the tertiary sexual characters in the fox, dog, pig, deer, and sheep skeletons. Morphometric and osteometric analyses of 11 elements of the post-cranial skeleton (atlas, axis, glenoid, proximal humerus, distal humerus, proximal metacarpus, innominate, proximal femur, distal tibia, astragalus, proximal metatarsus) have been conducted. Shape and size differences of bones have been analyzed using the F- test of variance and canonical variates analysis for shape variables, and discriminant analysis and the two-sample t- test for metrical data, to determine significance. Eigenshape analysis, an outline-based form of morphometrics, has been implemented for comparing bone shapes. Score plots have been produced by comparing eigenshape scores to indicate shape trends formed
morphometric exploration sexual_dimorphism mammalian skeleton applicability archaeology objective identify analyze sexual character mammalian skeleton order develop_new method sex determination archaeological animal remains study begin_examination evolutionary developmental framework sexual character review_current method_use sex classification animal_remain material method_use design locate tertiary sexual character fox dog pig deer sheep skeleton morphometric analyse element post cranial skeleton atlas axis humerus humerus femur tibia conduct shape_size difference bone analyze use test variance canonical analysis shape variable discriminant analysis sample test metrical data determine significance analysis outline based form implement compare bone shape score plot produce compare score indicate shape trend form