Investigating the Utility of Age-Dependent Cranial Vault Thickness as an Aging Method for Juvenile Skeletal Remains on Dry Bone, Radiographic and Computed Tomography Scans

Author

Kelly R. Kamnikar

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Herrmann, Nicholas P.

Committee Member

Zuckerman, Molly K.

Committee Member

Copeland, Toni J.

Date of Degree

5-7-2016

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Applied Anthropology

Degree Name

Master of Arts

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures

Abstract

Age estimation, a component of the biological profile, contributes significantly to the creation of a post-mortem profile of an unknown set of human remains. This goal of this study is to: (1) refine the juvenile age estimation method of cranial vault thickness (CVT) through MARS modeling, (2) test the method on known age samples, and (3) compare CVT and dental development age estimations. Data for this study comes from computed tomography (CT) scans, radiographic images, and dry bone. CVT was measured at seven cranial landmarks (nasion, glabella, bregma, vertex, vertex radius, lambda and opisthocranion). Results indicate that CVT models vary in their predictive ability; vertex and lambda produce the best results. Predicted fit values and prediction intervals for CVT are larger, and less accurate than dental development age estimates. Aging by CVT could benefit from a larger known age sample composed of individuals older than 6 years old.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/19258

Comments

multivariate adaptive regression splines||age estimation

Recommended Citation

Kamnikar, Kelly R., "Investigating the Utility of Age-Dependent Cranial Vault Thickness as an Aging Method for Juvenile Skeletal Remains on Dry Bone, Radiographic and Computed Tomography Scans" (2016). Theses and Dissertations. 2825.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/2825