A comparison of three established age estimation methods on an adult Spanish sample.

Most current methods for adult skeletal age-at-death estimation are based on American samples comprising individuals of European and African ancestry. Our limited understanding of population variability hampers our efforts to apply these techniques to various skeletal populations around the world, especially in global forensic contexts. Further, documented skeletal samples are rare, limiting our ability to test our techniques. The objective of this paper is to test three pelvic macroscopic methods (1-Suchey-Brooks; 2- Lovejoy; 3- Buckberry and Chamberlain) on a documented modern Spanish sample. These methods were selected because they are popular among Spanish anthropologists and because they never have been tested in a Spanish sample. The study sample consists of 80 individuals (55 ♂ and 25 ♀) of known sex and age from the Valladolid collection. Results indicate that in all three methods, levels of bias and inaccuracy increase with age. The Lovejoy method performs poorly (27%) compared with Suchey-Brooks (71%) and Buckberry and Chamberlain (86%). However, the levels of correlation between phases and chronological ages are low and comparable in the three methods (< 0.395). The apparent accuracy of the Suchey-Brooks and Buckberry and Chamberlain methods is largely based on the broad width of the methods" estimated intervals. This study suggests that before systematic application of these three methodologies in Spanish populations, further statistical modeling and research into the co-variance of chronological age with morphological change is necessary. Future methods should be developed specific to various world populations, and should allow for both precision and flexibility in age estimation

Participant Profiling and Pattern of Crop-Foraging in Chacma Baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) in Zimbabwe: Why Does Investigating Age–Sex Classes Matter?

International audienceTransformation and loss of natural habitat to urbanization and agriculture provide new opportunities for primates to feed on anthropogenic food sources. Currently, mitigation strategies fail to target the individuals responsible for initiating and maintaining this behavior. As primates mainly forage on crops in groups, we investigate the crop-foraging behavior of a group of 40 chacma baboons in Zimbabwe from the perspective of collective movements, i.e., when a group of animals move together in the same direction, thus resulting in a change of location. We collected data on 110 crop-foraging events during 35 days in March–April 2014. We recorded baboon movement and behavior with a camcorder and obtained further information through video analysis. Most crop-foraging events involved less than 20% of the troop and lasted less than 3 min. Although crop-foraging parties were composed of all age–sex classes, adult females and particularly adult males initiated most crop-foraging events and made direct movements (without stopping on the road) more often than nonadult participants. Baboons made up to five successive attempts to crop forage in a single crop-foraging event. Neither the number of participants nor the success of the crop-foraging events increased over the successive attempts. Finally, crop-foraging events were more successful and more frequent in unguarded areas than in guarded areas. These results suggest that group members are highly synchronized and that crop-foraging is based on a collective decision such as classical foraging movements. In addition, the short duration of the crop-foraging events might prevent detection of baboons by farmers. The more frequent initiation of crop-foraging by adults compared to nonadults might be explained by greater energetic needs or a greater tendency of adults to take risks. These preliminary data can help inform long-term strategies for farmers to reduce crop losses to baboons, as guarding helps reduce damage but does not prevent it