title: Histological determination of the human origin from dry bone: a cautionary note for subadults.
abstract: Anthropologists are frequently required to confirm or exclude the human origin of skeletal remains; DNA and protein radioimmunoassays are useful in confirming the human origin of bone fragments but are not always successful. Histology may be the solution, but the young subadult structure could create misinterpretation. Histological tests were conducted on femur and skull of 31 human subjects. Each sample was observed focusing on presence or absence of fibrous bone, lamellar bone, radial lamellar bone, plexiform bone, reticular pattern, osteon banding, Haversian bone, primary osteons, secondary osteon and osteon fragments. Samples were divided into five age classes; 1 (<1 year), 2 (1-5 years), 3 (6-10 years), 4 (11-15 years) and 5 (16-20 years). Regarding femurs, class 1 presented the following: 87.5% fibrous bone, 37.5% plexiform bone, 12.5% reticular pattern and 12.5% lamellar bone radially oriented. Class 2 showed 37.5% of fibrous bone, 12.5% of reticular pattern and 37.5% of osteon banding. In the higher age classes, the classical human structures, lamellar bone and osteons were frequently visible, except for one case of reticular pattern, generally considered a distinctive non-human structure. The situation appeared different for the skull, where there was a lack of similar information, both in human and non-human. An analysis of the percentage of lamellar bone and osteons was conducted on femur and skull fragments. A trend of increase of primary osteon number and a decrease of the lamellar bone area has been detected in the femur. The present study has therefore shed some light on further pitfalls in species determination of subadult bone.
authors.affiliation: LABANOF, Laboratorio di Antropologia ed Odontologia Forense, Sezione di Medicina Legale, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Caccia
authors.affiliation: LABANOF, Laboratorio di Antropologia ed Odontologia Forense, Sezione di Medicina Legale, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Magli
authors.affiliation: LABANOF, Laboratorio di Antropologia ed Odontologia Forense, Sezione di Medicina Legale, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Veronica Maria
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Tagi
authors.affiliation: LABANOF, Laboratorio di Antropologia ed Odontologia Forense, Sezione di Medicina Legale, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Davide Guido Ampelio
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Porta
authors.affiliation: LABANOF, Laboratorio di Antropologia ed Odontologia Forense, Sezione di Medicina Legale, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133, Milan, Italy.|Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham, Swindon, SN6 8LA, UK.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cummaudo
authors.affiliation: Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham, Swindon, SN6 8LA, UK.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Márquez-Grant
authors.affiliation: LABANOF, Laboratorio di Antropologia ed Odontologia Forense, Sezione di Medicina Legale, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133, Milan, Italy. cristina.cattaneo@unimi.it.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cattaneo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005269:Femur / Q000473:pathology*; D018732:Forensic Anthropology / Q000379:methods; D006253:Haversian System / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D012886:Skull / Q000473:pathology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anthropology; Histology; Osteon; Species determination