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Patterns of sexual, bilateral and interpopulational variation in human femoral neck-shaft angles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 1998

JOHN Y. ANDERSON  and
ERIK TRINKAUS
JOHN Y. ANDERSON
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
ERIK TRINKAUS
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA Laboratoire d'Anthropologie, Université de Bordeaux I, Talence, France
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Abstract

Data on femoral neck-shaft angles were collected for 30 modern, historic and prehistoric human population samples, and analysed with respect to sexual dimorphism, bilateral asymmetry, geographical patterning and general economic level. Although some samples had modest sexual dimorphism in this angle, and some individuals exhibited clear asymmetry, there were no consistent patterns of sexual or side differences across human populations. Similarly, there was no evidence for geographic differences, since broad regional groups lacked significant differences and mean angles were not correlated with latitude. However, there is a significant increase in mean neck-shaft angles across populations with an increasingly sedentary existence and with mechanisation. The last reflects the developmental plasticity of this feature with respect to habitual load levels during ontogeny of the hip region.

Keywords

Skeletal morphogenesisindustrialisation
Type
Short Report
Information
The Journal of Anatomy , Volume 192 , Issue 2 , February 1998 , pp. 279 - 285
Copyright
© Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1998

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