Analysis of Humeral Trochlear Angles as Possible Biological Sex Characteristic

Authors

  • Alexa M. Pennavaria Florida State University

Keywords:

comparative anatomy, biological sex, carrying angle, bone morphology, functional anatomy

Abstract

Previous research suggests the presence of dramatic variations between the angular traits of female and male humeri. In some populations, this research depicts the difference to be significant enough to accurately determine biological sex. Using the geometric morphometric software TPSDig2 as a new technique, this paper evaluates trochlear angles from photographed dry humeri as a possible determination of biological sex within populations of varying subsistence practices and time periods. The samples include 40 (17 female/23 male) individuals from the archaic population of Windover, Florida and 73 (42 female/31 male) individuals from 6 collections of various subsistence patterns and time periods housed at the University of Tübingen, Germany. The results on the Windover population, a hunter-gatherer group, shows that the left trochlear angles are on average greater than the right trochlear angles by about 6 degrees. In the same population, female left trochlear angles are on average greater than both male right and left angles, but are not statistically significant. When compared to the Tübingen collection, the two hunter-gatherer groups did not display similar trochlear angle distributions. Two of the three medieval groups displayed greater average right angles in both males and females; whereas the remaining medieval group most closely resembled Windover with greater average left angles in males and females. The 7 total collections were compared to each other to test for the accuracy of this method as it might be dependent on factors such as, occupation, time period, robusticity, or handedness. It was ultimately determined that the trochlear angle of the humerus cannot be used as a determinant of biological sex in adults due to exorbitant population variation.

Author Biography

Alexa M. Pennavaria, Florida State University

Alexa Pennavaria is an URCAA and Benjamin A. Gilman award recipient for her research in Germany and France on human osteology. Currently, she is working on her Honors Thesis which is a culmination of her year in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) and her summer abroad. Her research focuses on humeral trochlear angles and their potential as a determinant of biological sex. She has thus far presented this research at two academic conferences; the Florida Undergraduate Research Conference and the 84th Annual Meeting of Professional Anthropologists. This academic year, she will be a UROP Instructor and an intern at the Bureau of Archaeological Research. After earning a B.S. in Anthropology with a minor concentration in Museum Studies in the spring of 2016, she will pursue a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology. 

References

Barnes, Jonathan, and Daniel Wescott. "Sex Determination of Mississippian Skeletal Remains from Humeral Measurements." The Missouri Archaeologist, Journal of the Missouri Archaeological Society, 68 (2007).

Beals, Rodney K. "The Normal Carrying Angle of the Elbow A Radiographic Study of 422 Patients." Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 1976, 194-96.

Blackburn, Amanda and Christopher J. Knüsel. “Hand Dominance and Bilateral Asymmetry of the Epicondylar Breadth of the Humerus: A Test in a Living Sample” Current

Anthropology, Vol. 47, No. 2 (April 2006), pp. 377-382

Brain, James L. "Handedness in Tanzania. The Physiological Aspect." Anthropos Bd. 72.H. 1./2. (1977): 182.

Doran, Glen H. Windover: Multidisciplinary Investigations of an Early Archaic Florida Cemetery. Gainesville: U of Florida, 2002.

Fuss, FK. "The Ulnar Collateral Ligament of the Human Elbow Joint." Journal of Anatomy 175 (1991): 203-12.

Galaty, John G.. “Being "maasai"; Being "people-of-cattle": Ethnic Shifters in East Africa”. American Ethnologist 9.1 (1982): 1–20

Gauldi-Russo, Emanuela, and P. Russo. "A New Technique for Measurements on Long Bones: Development of A New Instrument and Techniques Comparison." Anthropologischer Anzeiger 53, no. 2 (1995): 153-82.

Gauldi-Russo, Emanuela. "Study on Long Bones: Variation in Angular Traits with Sex, Age, and Laterality." Anthropologischer Anzeiger 56, no. 4 (1998): 289-99.

Gauldi-Russo, Emanuela, and P. Russo. "A New Technique for Measurements on Long Bones: Development of A New Instrument and Techniques Comparison." Anthropologischer Anzeiger 53, no. 2 (1995): 153-82.

Gray, Henry, and Roger Warwick. Gray's Anatomy. 35th Edition. Edited by Roger Warwick ... Peter L. Williams, Etc. 36th ed. Harlow: Longman, 1973

Grupe, Gisela. "Das Frühmittelalterliche Gräberfeld Bei Aldingen Am Mittleren Nackar. Reihe: Materialhefte Zur Archäologie in Baden-Württemberg, Heft 74 by H. Schach-Dörges." Anthropologischer Anzeiger 65.2 (2007): 239-40.

Hodgson, Dorothy L.. “"once Intrepid Warriors": Modernity and the Production of Maasai Masculinities”. Ethnology 38.2 (1999): 121–150.

Holwell, Gregory I., Claire Winnick, Tom Tregenza, and Marie E. Herberstein. "Genital Shape Correlates with Sperm Transfer Success in the Praying Mantis Ciulfina Klassi (Insecta: Mantodea)." Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 64.4 (2010): 617-25.

Hunt, and Gleiser. Determination of Sex of Juvenile Skeletons. 1955.

Ibáñez-Gimeno, Pere, Xavier Jordana, Joan Manyosa, Assumpció Malgosa, and Ignasi Galtés. "3D Analysis of the Forearm Rotational Efficiency Variation in Humans." Anat Rec The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology 295.7 (2012): 1092-100.

İşcan, M. Yaşar., and Kenneth A. R. Kennedy. "Determination of Sex and Race: Accuracy and Assumptions." Reconstruction of Life from the Skeleton. New York: Liss, 1989.

Jung, Matthias. "Kline Oder Thron? Zu Den Fragmenten Eines Griechischen Möbelpfostens Aus Dem Späthallstattzeitlichen „Fürstengrab“ Grafenbühl in Asperg (Kr. Ludwigsburg)." Germania 85 (2007)

Kapandji, I. A. The Physiology of the Joints: Annotated Diagrams of the Mechanics of the Human Joints. London: E. & S. Livingstone, 1970.

Kennedy, Kenneth A. R.. "Skeletal Markers of Occupational Stress." Reconstruction of Life from the Skeleton. New York: Liss, 1989.

Khare, G. N., Goel, S. C., Saraf, S. K., Singh, G., and Mohanty, C. (1999). ‘New observations of carrying angle’. Indian J. Med. Sci. 53: 61-67.

Kingston, Bernard. Understanding Joints: A Practical Guide to Their Structure and Function. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes, 2000.

Kyriss, Ernst. "An Esslingen Binder of the Late Gothic Period." Speculum 25.1 (1950): 73.

Kumar, B. et al.. “Radiographic Study of Carrying Angle and Morphometry of Skeletal Elements of Human Elbow.” Romanian Journal of Morphology and Embryology, 51, no. 3 (2010): 521-526.

Mall, Franklin P. "On the Angle of the Elbow." American Journal of Anatomy (1905)

Martin, Rudolf, and Karl Saller. Lehrbuch Der Anthropologie, in Systematischer Darstellung. Stuttgart: Fischer, 1957.

Morrey, Bernard F., and Jaoquin Sanchez-Sotelo. The Elbow and Its Disorders. Philadelphia: Mayo Clinic Foundation, 2009. Print.

Nelson, E., C. Rolian, L. Cashmore, and S. Shultz. "Digit Ratios Predict Polygyny in Early Apes, Ardipithecus, Neanderthals and Early Modern Humans but Not in Australopithecus."

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 278.1711 (2011): 1556-563.

Peebles, Ruth (2015)

Purkait, R. "'Carrying Angle' - Anatomy and Sex Dominant Indicator - A Review." Indian Anthropologist 26, no. 2 (1996): 25-31

Purkait, R. “Measurements of the Ulna: A New Method for Determination of Sex” Journal of Forensic Sciences, 46, 924-927. (2001)

Purkait, Ruma, and Heeresh Chandra. "An Anthropomorphic Investigation Into the Probable Cause of Formation of 'Carrying Angle': A Sex Indicator." Journal of Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine 26, no. 1 (2004).

Rohlf FJ (2004) TpsDig2. Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook

Roy, P. Van, J. P. Baeyens, D. Fauvart, R. Lanssiers, and J. P. Clarijs. "Arthro-kinematics of the Elbow: Study of the Carrying Angle." Ergonomics 48.11-14 (2005): 1645-656.

Ruff, Christopher. "Sexual Dimorphism in Human Lower Limb Bone Structure: Relationship to Subsistence Strategy and Sexual Division of Labor." Journal of Human Evolution 16.5 (1987): 391-416.

Schutkowski, H., and Gisela Grupe. "Zusammenhänge Zwischen Cribra Orbitalia, Archäometrischen Befunden Am Skelett Und Habitatbedingungen." Anthropologischer Anzeiger 55.2 (1997)

Senturia, Sam J. "Morphometry and Allometry of the Primate Humerus." Primates 36.4 (1995): 523-47.

Steel, F. L. D., and J. D. W. Tomlinson. "The 'Carrying Angle' In Man." American Journal of Anatomy 92.Pt. 2 (1958): 315-17.

Terra, B. "Evolution of the Carrying Angle of the Elbow: A Clinical and Radiographic Study." Acta Ortopedica Brasileira 19, no. 2 (2011).

Ubelaker, Douglas H. Human Skeletal Remains: Excavation, Analysis, Interpretation. Chicago: Aldine Pub., 1978.

Vance, Veronica L., Maryna Steyn, and Ericka N. L’Abbé. "Nonmetric Sex Determination from the Distal and Posterior Humerus in Black and White South Africans." Journal of Forensic Sciences 56.3 (2011): 710-14.

White, T. D., and Pieter A. Folkens. Human Osteology. San Diego: Academic, 2000.

Wilder, Harris Hawthorne. A Laboratory Manual of Anthropometry. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston’s Son, 1920. 80-100.

Woo, T. L. "A Study Of The Chinese Humerus." Biometrika 33.1 (1943): 36-47.

Downloads

Published

2016-04-12

Issue

Section

Research Articles