TY - JOUR
T1 - Secondary osteon and Haversian canal dimensions as behavioral indicators
AU - Pfeiffer, Susan
AU - Crowder, Christian
AU - Harrington, Lesley
AU - Brown, Michael
PY - 2006/12/1
Y1 - 2006/12/1
N2 - Variation in the size of structures within mature cortical bone is relevant to our understanding of apparent differences between human samples, and it is relevant to the development of histologically based age-estimation methods. It was proposed that variation may reflect effects of physical activity, through biomechanical and/or metabolic mechanisms. If these factors are local, femoral osteon area (On.Ar) should be more histologically variable than On.Ar in ribs. Ribs should show a higher variation in Haversian canal area (H.Ar) if they are sites of more remodeling activity and hence of arrested refilling of secondary osteons at time of death. This study compares On.Ar and H.Ar of secondary osteons from femora (15) and ribs (29) from 44 Holocene (Later Stone Age) foragers from South Africa (M = 19, F = 25) to values from paired femora and ribs from historic samples (Spitalfields and St. Thomas, 20 pairs from each). Fixed-effects analysis of variance demonstrates rib On.Ar to be significantly smaller than femur, but with no sex or age effects. The femur-to-rib On.Ar ratio is lower for the Holocene foragers than for the two modern samples because of relatively large rib On.Ar. Femora and ribs from the same skeleton normally show femoral On.Ar larger than rib On.Ar (37/44 pairs). Mean femoral values of On.Ar are more diverse than rib On.Ar values, but within-sample coefficients of variation are similar. Values for H.Ar are highly variable and do not reflect anatomical site, age, sex, or population effects. The patterning of osteon size does not appear to be linked to physical activity or to different rates of metabolic activity within the skeleton, at least not in a straightforward way.
AB - Variation in the size of structures within mature cortical bone is relevant to our understanding of apparent differences between human samples, and it is relevant to the development of histologically based age-estimation methods. It was proposed that variation may reflect effects of physical activity, through biomechanical and/or metabolic mechanisms. If these factors are local, femoral osteon area (On.Ar) should be more histologically variable than On.Ar in ribs. Ribs should show a higher variation in Haversian canal area (H.Ar) if they are sites of more remodeling activity and hence of arrested refilling of secondary osteons at time of death. This study compares On.Ar and H.Ar of secondary osteons from femora (15) and ribs (29) from 44 Holocene (Later Stone Age) foragers from South Africa (M = 19, F = 25) to values from paired femora and ribs from historic samples (Spitalfields and St. Thomas, 20 pairs from each). Fixed-effects analysis of variance demonstrates rib On.Ar to be significantly smaller than femur, but with no sex or age effects. The femur-to-rib On.Ar ratio is lower for the Holocene foragers than for the two modern samples because of relatively large rib On.Ar. Femora and ribs from the same skeleton normally show femoral On.Ar larger than rib On.Ar (37/44 pairs). Mean femoral values of On.Ar are more diverse than rib On.Ar values, but within-sample coefficients of variation are similar. Values for H.Ar are highly variable and do not reflect anatomical site, age, sex, or population effects. The patterning of osteon size does not appear to be linked to physical activity or to different rates of metabolic activity within the skeleton, at least not in a straightforward way.
KW - Adult age estimation
KW - Bone remodeling
KW - Histomorphology
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U2 - 10.1002/ajpa.20454
DO - 10.1002/ajpa.20454
M3 - Article
C2 - 16685724
AN - SCOPUS:33751047179
SN - 0002-9483
VL - 131
SP - 460
EP - 468
JO - American Journal of Physical Anthropology
JF - American Journal of Physical Anthropology
IS - 4
ER -