Departmental News

Posted:  May 24, 2024 - 01:00pm

Esteban Rangel was awarded an American Biolgical Anthropology Association Prize at the annual meeting for his paper A Comparison of Stature Estimation Methods for Contemporary American Indians, presented as part of the panel session Forensic Anthropology: Methods for Examining Human Variation and Taphonomy. 

A comparison of stature estimation methods for contemporary American Indians.

ESTEBAN RANGEL¹, KELLY R KAMNIKAR^1,2, NICOLLETTE APPEL^1,3, HEATHER JH EDGAR^1,3

Affiliations:¹ Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico; ² Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University; ³Office of the Medical Investigator, Albuquerque, NM.

Data from contemporary American Indians (AI) are rare in reference samples used in forensic anthropology. The absence of these data is not surprising given the history of exploitation by anthropologists. These data are necessary in contexts where AI comprise a large part of the population and can become part of the forensic record, like New Mexico. Currently, analytical methods used for AI are created from archaeological samples or other Indigenous populations and may not be appropriate for forensic use.

To investigate accuracy, precision, and secular change in allometry, we compared three stature estimation equations derived from different data sources: Auerbach and Ruff (A&R; 2004), calculated from archaeological material; Genovés (1967), derived from an Indigenous Mexican sample; and newly created equations from a contemporary forensic sample, the New Mexico Decedent Image Database (NMDID), For this research, long bone lengths and cadaveric height were collected from computed tomography (CT) scans (n=36) and linear regression equations were determined. A total of 13 comparisons were produced. Point estimates of stature were compared with measured cadaver length to assess method accuracy. Results show point estimates from A&R underestimate stature by ~2-5cm, with the greatest discrepancy seen among females. Genovês' equations are more precise for female stature (> 1 cm); however, they underestimate male stature by ~3 cm. Stature estimates from NMDID equations differ from cadaveric height by less than 1 cm across both sexes. Additionally, we note an increase in limb length and stature compared to samples used in the A&R and Genovés studies. We demonstrate the benefit of using modern datasets to assess the biological profile in forensic contexts.