Age-at-Death Estimation for Modern Populations in Mexico and Puerto Rico Through the Use of 3D Laser Scans of the Pubic Symphysis

Reliable age-at-death estimates from the adult skeleton is of fundamental importance in forensic anthropology, as it contributes to the identity parameters used in a medico-legal death investigation. However, reliable estimates are made difficult by the fact that many traditional aging methods are dependent upon a set of population-specific criteria derived from individuals of European and African descent. The absence of information on the potential differences in the aging patterns of underrepresented, especially Hispanic populations, may hinder our efforts to produce useful age-at-death estimates. In response to these concerns, this study explores the utility of currently available aging techniques, and explores the need, if any, for population- specific aging method among Hispanic groups. The current study obtained data from two skeletal collections representing modern individuals of Mexican and Puerto Rican origin. Five newly developed computational-shape based techniques utilizing 3D laser scans of the pubic symphysis and one traditional bone-to-phase technique were examined. A validation test of all computational and traditional methods was implemented, and new population-specific equations using the computational algorithms were generated and tested against a sub-sample. Estimated mean ages from the traditional and computational techniques were compared in order to offer practical recommendations for age estimation on cases of Hispanic identity and, in particular, cases presumed to be of Mexican or Puerto Rican individuals. Results from this study suggest that traditional and computational aging techniques applied to the pubic symphysis perform the best with individuals within 35-45 years of age. Levels of bias and inaccuracy increase as chronological age increases, with overestimation of individuals under 35 years of age, and underestimation of individuals over 45 years of age. New regression models provided error rates comparable, and in some occasions, outperformed the original computational models developed on White American males, but age estimates did not significantly improve. This study has shown that population specific models do not necessarily improve age estimates in Hispanic samples. Results do suggest that computational methods can ultimately outperform the Suchey Brooks method and provide improvement in objectivity when estimating age-at-death in Hispanic samples

The genetic history of the Southern Arc: a bridge between West Asia and Europe

By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian/Levantine ancestry northward, and the Yamnaya pastoralists, formed on the steppe, then spread southward into the Balkans and across the Caucasus into Armenia, where they left numerous patrilineal descendants. Anatolia was transformed by intra–West Asian gene flow, with negligible impact of the later Yamnaya migrations. This contrasts with all other regions where Indo-European languages were spoken, suggesting that the homeland of the Indo-Anatolian language family was in West Asia, with only secondary dispersals of non-Anatolian Indo-Europeans from the steppe

Morfometría geométrica y 3D en la Antropología Física. Determinación de la edad al morir

La antropología forense es una rama dentro de la antropología física que se encarga de determinar el perfil biológico a partir de restos humanos a fin de identificar estos restos. Para ello, se han desarrollado numerosas técnicas de estimación del sexo, edad, estatura además de las diferencias inter e intra poblacionales. La estimación precisa y repetible de estas características a partir de restos esqueléticos no es una tarea sencilla, ya que depende del estado de conservación de la muestra, la presencia de determinados huesos, así como los medios técnicos a disposición del antropólogo para realizar la identificación. En antropología forense, una de las características más frecuentes utilizadas para la estimación de la edad al morir es la forma de la cara articular de la sínfisis del pubis. Hace 100 años de la publicación del primer método con este fin; durante este siglo, hemos modificado y puesto a prueba este método y, si bien se sigue utilizando a día de hoy, ha demostrado tener grandes carencias y limitaciones. Otro problema de este método y de todos los existentes basados en la asignación de fases es el requisito previo de especialización que necesita el antropólogo para ser capaz de asignar las fases correctamente. Debido a esto, en los últimos años e impulsado por el auge de nuevas tecnologías, los métodos computacionales están sustituyendo a aquellos basados en fases. En este trabajo, se han puesto a prueba diversas técnicas utilizadas en otras ramas de la ciencia con la meta de mejorar el excelente trabajo realizado por el grupo de Stoyanova et al. con su software llamado “For Age”. Cada metodología adaptada a la estimación de la edad al morir ha aportado información valiosa para pulir el método, culminando en el filtro de paso de banda de energía de torsión, una técnica de estadística multivariable englobada dentro de la morfometría geométrica que ha reportado los mejores resultados en estimación de la edad publicados a día de hoy. Esta metodología no solo supone una mejora sustancial en la estimación de la edad, también podría ser aplicable, dentro de la antropología física, para la estimación de otras características del perfil biológico. Además, elimina el error inter e intra observador típico de los métodos de estimación basados en la comparación visual. Por último, el desarrollo de este trabajo también saca a relucir los defectos y carencias que los métodos de estimación de la edad al morir tienen, incluidos los computacionales y cómo podríamos abordar este problema de cara al futuro.Forensic anthropology is a branch within physical anthropology that is responsible for determining the biological profile from human remains in order to identify these remains. For this, numerous techniques have been developed to estimate sex, age, height, as well as inter- and intra-population differences. A precise and repeatable estimation of these characteristics from skeletal remains is not an easy task, since it depends on the state of conservation of the sample, the presence of certain bones, as well as the technical means available to the anthropologist to carry out the identification. In forensic anthropology, one of the most frequent characteristics used to estimate age at death is the shape of the articular face of the symphysis pubis. It has been 100 years from the publication of the first method for this purpose; During this century, we have modified and tested this method, and while it is still used today, it has proven to have major shortcomings and limitations. Another problem with this method and with all existing ones based on phase assignment is the prerequisite of specialization that the anthropologist needs to be able to assign the phases correctly. Due to this, in recent years and driven by the rise of new technologies, computational methods are replacing those based on phases. In this work, various techniques used in other branches of science have been tested with the goal of improving the excellent work done by the group of Stoyanova et al. with their software called "For Age". Each methodology, adapted to the estimation of age at death, has provided valuable information to refine the method, culminating in the bandpass filter of bending energy, a multivariate statistics technique from the geometric morphometrics toolkit that has reported the best results in computational age at death estimation published till today. This methodology not only supposes a substantial improvement in the estimation of age, it could also be applicable, within physical anthropology, for the estimation of other characteristics of the biological profile. In addition, it eliminates the typical inter- and intra-observer error of estimation methods based on visual comparison. Finally, the development of this work also highlights the defects and shortcomings that the methods of estimating age at death have, including computational ones, and how we could address this problem in the future.Tesis Univ. Granada

Diversity lost: COVID-19 as a phenomenon of the total environment

If we want to learn how to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, we have to embrace the complexity of this global phenomenon and capture interdependencies across scales and contexts. Yet,we still lack systematic approaches that we can use to deal holistically with the pandemic and its effects. In this Discussion, we first introduce a framework that highlights the systemic nature of the COVID-19 pandemic fromthe perspective of the total environment as a self-regulating and evolving system comprising of three spheres, the Geosphere, the Biosphere, and the Anthroposphere. Then,we use this framework to explore and organize information from the rapidly growing number of scientific papers, preprints, preliminary scientific reports, and journalistic pieces that give insights into the pandemic crisis. With this work, we point out that the pandemic should be understood as the result of preconditions that led to depletion of human, biological, and geochemical diversity aswell as of feedback that differentially impacted the three spheres. We contend that protecting and promoting diversity, is necessary to contribute to more effective decision-making processes and policy interventions to face the current and future pandemics

A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia

Literary and archaeological sources have preserved a rich history of Southern Europe and West Asia since the Bronze Age that can be complemented by genetics. Mycenaean period elites in Greece did not differ from the general population and included both people with some steppe ancestry and others, like the Griffin Warrior, without it. Similarly, people in the central area of the Urartian Kingdom around Lake Van lacked the steppe ancestry characteristic of the kingdom’s northern provinces. Anatolia exhibited extraordinary continuity down to the Roman and Byzantine periods, with its people serving as the demographic core of much of the Roman Empire, including the city of Rome itself. During medieval times, migrations associated with Slavic and Turkic speakers profoundly affected the region

A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia

Literary and archaeological sources have preserved a rich history of Southern Europe and West Asia since the Bronze Age that can be complemented by genetics. Mycenaean period elites in Greece did not differ from the general population and included both people with some steppe ancestry and others, like the Griffin Warrior, without it. Similarly, people in the central area of the Urartian Kingdom around Lake Van lacked the steppe ancestry characteristic of the kingdom's northern provinces. Anatolia exhibited extraordinary continuity down to the Roman and Byzantine periods, with its people serving as the demographic core of much of the Roman Empire, including the city of Rome itself. During medieval times, migrations associated with Slavic and Turkic speakers profoundly affected the region

Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic migrations into Anatolia

We present the first ancient DNA data from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Mesopotamia (Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq), Cyprus, and the Northwestern Zagros, along with the first data from Neolithic Armenia. We show that these and neighboring populations were formed through admixture of pre-Neolithic sources related to Anatolian, Caucasus, and Levantine hunter-gatherers, forming a Neolithic continuum of ancestry mirroring the geography of West Asia. By analyzing Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic populations of Anatolia, we show that the former were derived from admixture between Mesopotamian-related and local Epipaleolithic-related sources, but the latter experienced additional Levantine-related gene flow, thus documenting at least two pulses of migration from the Fertile Crescent heartland to the early farmers of Anatolia

Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age

Present-day people from England and Wales harbour more ancestry derived from Early European Farmers (EEF) than people of the Early Bronze Age . To understand this, we generated genome-wide data from 793 individuals, increasing data from the Middle to Late Bronze and Iron Age in Britain by 12-fold, and Western and Central Europe by 3.5-fold. Between 1000 and 875 BC, EEF ancestry increased in southern Britain (England and Wales) but not northern Britain (Scotland) due to incorporation of migrants who arrived at this time and over previous centuries, and who were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France. These migrants contributed about half the ancestry of Iron Age people of England and Wales, thereby creating a plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain. These patterns are part of a broader trend of EEF ancestry becoming more similar across central and western Europe in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, coincident with archaeological evidence of intensified cultural exchange . There was comparatively less gene flow from continental Europe during the Iron Age, and Britain's independent genetic trajectory is also reflected in the rise of the allele conferring lactase persistence to ~50% by this time compared to ~7% in central Europe where it rose rapidly in frequency only a millennium later. This suggests that dairy products were used in qualitatively different ways in Britain and in central Europe over this period. [Abstract copyright: © 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.