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Sex determination using the Probabilistic Sex Diagnosis (DSP: Diagnose Sexuelle Probabiliste) tool in a virtual environment.
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The hip bone is one of the most reliable indicators of sex in the human body due to the fact it is the most dimorphic bone. Probabilistic Sex Diagnosis (DSP: Diagnose Sexuelle Probabiliste) developed by Murail et al., in 2005, is a sex determination method based on a worldwide hip bone metrical database. Sex is determined by comparing specific measurements taken from each specimen using sliding callipers and computing the probability of specimens being female or male. In forensic science it is sometimes not possible to sex a body due to corpse decay or injury. Skeletalization and dissection of a body is a laborious process and desecrates the body. There were two aims to this study. The first aim was to examine the accuracy of the DSP method in comparison with a current visual sexing method on sex determination. A further aim was to see if it was possible to virtually utilise the DSP method on both the hip bone and the pelvic girdle in order to utilise this method for forensic sciences. For the first part of the study, forty-nine dry hip bones of unknown sex were obtained from the Body Donation Programme of the Universite´ Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). A comparison was made between DSP analysis and visual sexing on dry bone by two researchers. CT scans of bones were then analysed to obtain three-dimensional (3D) virtual models and the method of DSP was analysed virtually by importing the models into a customised software programme called lhpFusionBox which was developed at ULB. The software enables DSP distances to be measured via virtually-palpated bony landmarks. There was found to be 100% agreement of sex between the manual and virtual DSP method. The second part of the study aimed to further validate the method by analysing thirty-nine supplementary pelvic girdles of known sex blind. There was found to be a 100% accuracy rate further demonstrating that the virtual DSP method is robust. Statistically significant differences were found in the identification of sex between researchers in the visual sexing method although both researchers identified the same sex in all cases in the manual and virtual DSP methods for both the hip bones and pelvic girdles.
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New mammals from the marine Selandian of Maret, Belgium, and their implications for the age of the Paleocene continental deposits of Walbeck, Germany
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The early to middle Selandian fossiliferous Orp Sand Member of the Heers Formation in Belgium has regularly been excavated at its type-locality Maret for its rich and diversified selachian fauna. Among the abundant vertebrate remains, extremely rare mammal specimens have been found. Three isolated teeth have been published previously, all with uncertain affinities. The purpose of this study is to present new specimens from the same deposits, including a small well-preserved dentary of an adapisoriculid attributable to “Afrodon” germanicus, a fragmentary upper molar, referred to Berrulestes sp., and a premolar of a large arctocyonid. Among the previous specimens we identified Arctocyonides cf. weigelti. The adapisoriculid dentary offers new clues that allow transferring “Afrodon” germanicus to the genus Bustylus. The five mammal taxa from Maret indicate an age intermediate between reference-levels MP1-5 of Hainin, Belgium and MP6 of Cernay, France and present the greatest correlation with the rich Walbeck fauna in Germany. The deposits from Walbeck were usually thought to be slightly older than the late Thanetian deposits of Cernay. We infer here that the age of Walbeck is likely to be Selandian. The strong differences observed between Hainin on the one hand, and Walbeck and Cernay on the other hand, document a dispersal event from North America to Europe around the Danian-Selandian boundary.
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Application du logiciel de modélisation musculosquelettique lhpFusionBox à une problématique paléoanthropologique. Spyrou le Néandertalien marche !
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Résumé LhpFusionBox est un logiciel développé pour des études biomécaniques et cliniques relatives au système musculosquelettique des hommes anatomiquement modernes (HAM). Il a été récemment adapté aux problématiques paléoanthropologiques et utilisé pour l’étude biomécanique de la locomotion des hominidés fossiles. Il n’existe aucun squelette de Néandertalien complet. Le but de notre étude a consisté à réaliser un modèle virtuel en trois dimensions (3D) du squelette relativement complet du Néandertalien Spy II et à tester la faisabilité d’une analyse biomécanique de la locomotion du genou et des bras de levier des muscles ischio-jambiers. Des ossements appartenant à d’autres individus néandertaliens ont été mis à l’échelle de ceux de Spy II afin de remplacer les ossements incomplets ou manquants. Ces études biomécaniques préliminaires semblent montrer que les Néandertaliens et les HAM ont une locomotion comparable. Les Néandertaliens semblent avoir des bras de levier plus grands au niveau des muscles de la cuisse, ce qui pourrait leur procurer un avantage biomécanique. Le squelette obtenu a été imprimé en 3D et a servi de base à la reconstruction artistique de Spyrou qui est hébergée en l’espace de l’homme de Spy (EHoS). [Application of the musculo-skeletal modelling software lhpFusionBox to a paleoanthropological problem: the Spyrou Neandertal moves!] Abstract LhpFusionBox is a program originally designed for biomechanical and clinical studies relating to the musculoskeletal system of anatomically modern humans (AMH). The program has recently been adapted for paleontological purposes and used to reconstruct and biomechanically analyse a fossil hominid. There is no complete Neandertal skeleton in the fossil record. The aim of the study was to reconstruct a complete three-dimensional (3D) model of a Neandertal using the relatively complete Spy II Neandertal and to conduct biomechanical feasibility studies on the knee and hamstring moment arms of the skeleton. Different Neandertal specimens were scaled to the size of Spy II to replace incomplete or missing bones. Biomechanical feasibility studies performed on the knee seem to show that Neandertal and AMHh gait is similar and Neandertals were shown to have larger moment arms in the hamstring muscles, which would have given them a mechanical advantage. The complete Neandertal was printed in 3D and used as the base to create the artistic model of “Spyrou” housed at l’Espace de l’Homme de Spy (EHoS) museum.
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Agora 3D: evaluating 3D imaging technology for the research, conservation and display of museum collections
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A new archaic shark-toothed dolphin from the late Oligocene-early Miocene of Peru
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A giant chelonioid turtle from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco with a suction feeding apparatus unique among tetrapods
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Environmental Roots of the Late Bronze Age Crisis.
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Early Eocene frogs from Vastan Lignite Mine, Gujarat, India
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The Ypresian Cambay Shale Formation of Vastan Lignite Mine in Gujarat, western India, has yielded a rich vertebrate fauna, including the earliest modern mammals of the Indian subcontinent. Here we describe its assemblage of four frogs,including two new genera and species, based on numerous, diverse and well−preserved ilia and vertebrae. An abundant frog, Eobarbourula delfinoi gen. and sp. nov., with a particular vertebral articulation similar to a zygosphene−zygantrum complex, represents the oldest record of the Bombinatoridae and might have been capable of displaying the Unken reflex. The large non−fossorial pelobatid Eopelobates, known from complete skeletons from the Eocene and Oligocene of Europe, is also identified at Vastan based on a single nearly complete ilium. An abundant “ranid” and a possible rhacophorid Indorana prasadi gen. and sp. nov. represent the earliest records of both families. The Vastan pelobatids and ranids confirm an early worldwide distribution of these families, and the bombinatorids and rhacophorids show possible origins of those clades on the Indian subcontinent.
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Ammonites from the Dababiya Quarry Corehole: Taxonomic notes and age assessment
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We describe a small collection of ammonites from the Dababiya Quarry corehole. It is almost entirely composed of heteromorph ammonites, in particular of scaphitids and baculitids. The presence of Indoscaphites pavana (Forbes 1848),which is for the first time reported from Egypt, points to a late to possibly latest Maastrichtian age for the interval DBD 80.36–DBD 99.11 of the Dababiya Quarry core. This is corroborated by preliminary data on planktonic foraminifera.
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The first record of Early Devonian ammonoids from Belgium and their stratigraphic significance
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The first ammonoids from the Lower Emsian (Devonian) of Belgium are described. They belong to the Anetoceratinae, which show the most plesiomorphic characters of all ammonoids. This is the second report of Early Emsian ammonoids within the Rhenish facies of the Rhenish Slate Mountains (Belgium, Germany), in this case from the Belgian part of the Eifel (Burg Reuland). It highlights the possible importance of ammonoids for the correlation of the Emsian in its traditional German sense and the Emsian in the global sense as delimited by the GSSPs. Newly collected, age-significant brachiopods of the genera Arduspirifer and Euryspirifer and other previously reported fossils indicate a middle or late Early Emsian (Singhofen or Vallendar) age (in German sense) for this locality. We extend the range of Ivoites schindewolfi outside of the Hunsrück Basin and further corroborate an age younger than Ulmen for parts of the Hunsrück Slate.
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