The estimation of age at death and ages of formation of transverse lines from measurements of human long bones

Abstract

Abstract A radiographic method is presented which estimates the age at death from the diaphyseal length of a child's long bone or bones. Mean lengths are calculated from adult males and females separately in the skeletal population under study, and the child's age derived from the proportion of adult length attained at his or her death. The calculations come from double logistic curves originally derived from a sample of Colorado children (McCammon, 1970). In radiographs of immature or adult long bones, similar equations are based on the location of the center of ossification, from which distances to transverse lines yield estimated ages when these lines were formed. In a population, ages at death, ages of attainment of transverse lines, and ages when anomalous enamel is laid down in teeth are all contributions to paleopathology and paleodemography. These equations can predict when spaced transverse lines were annually formed. If such spaced lines can be seen in radiographs of early fossil hominids, their spacing can distinguish between short childhood, as in apes, and the longer immature developmental span found in modern children.