Presenter: Julia Arenson
Mentor: Frances White
Poster: 1
Major: Anthropology
Cranial sutures are frequently used to determine age in forensic and bioarchaeological contexts. However, these methods are mostly only utilized in human populations, and a lack of comparative data for non-human primates makes visualizing the evolution of growth patterns difficult. This project documents cranial suture fusion in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) as a marker of development. To develop a standardized methodology, I used Meindl and Lovejoy’s (1985) established 0-3 point scale for human ectocranial fusion, and scored sutures all over the cranium that were included in Wang et al.’s research (2006). My sample included osteological specimens with known ages from the UO Comparative Primate Osteological Collection, ranging from 0 to over 14 years, totaling15 specimens (5 females and 10 males). Total percentage fusion of each region of the skull, divided into facial, neurocranial, and basicranial regions, revealed which areas correlated positively with age, while analysis of scoring precision over 10 trials of the same specimens showed which sutures were not scored reliably. Sutures on the neurocranium and face gave the best age correlates, while sutures within the eye orbit and the squamosal suture were not consistently scored. To best estimate the age of an osteological specimen, the findings suggest a focus on sutures of the face and neurocranium. Developing comparative methods to evaluate growth patterns can allow researchers to identify the changes and consistencies of important life history events within both human and nonhuman primate evolution.