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Preliminary observations on the calcaneal trabecular microarchitecture of extant large‐bodied hominoids
Author(s) -
Maga Murat,
Kappelman John,
Ryan Timothy M.,
Ketcham Richard A.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.20276
Subject(s) - extant taxon , orientation (vector space) , microarchitecture , biology , anisotropy , trabecular bone , anatomy , evolutionary biology , computer science , geometry , mathematics , physics , optics , osteoporosis , endocrinology , operating system
In this pilot study, we point out potential differences between calcaneal trabecular microarchitecture in humans and nonhuman large apes, such as increased degree of anisotropy, reduced bone volume fraction, and very stereotypical orientation of the trabeculae. Even though sample size does not permit us to investigate the issue statistically, the observed differences between humans and other hominoids warrants further in‐depth investigation. We also show that some measurements of the trabecular network might be dependent on sampling density, which can be difficult to deal with in the case of animals of different body masses. We also present a new visualization technique that summarizes the trabecular network orientation, and makes it more readily interpretable than the summary statistics of the underlying fabric tensor of the orientation matrix. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.