B301 Laboratory Methods in Bioanthropology is an introduction to the research techniques and methodologies used in bioanthropological investigations. The course includes lots of hands-on experience as well as an introduction to the primary literature in biological anthropology. We will begin with a basic grounding in human osteology, building upon this foundation to cover a variety of bioanthropological topics including forensic anthropology, primatology, genetics, nutrition, and palaeoanthropology (human palaeontology -- fossil hominids).
This course is intended to be challenging, but enjoyable. By the
end of the semester, you'll be able to handle a number of biological anthropology
problems, and you'll also have some first-hand experience in bioanthropological
research. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work!
Access to course RESERVE
READINGS.
Our password is: laboratory301
Announcements
12-5-2002
Reminder: This Saturday, December 7, there will be an open lab session to enable you to make up any labs you may have missed and/or to collect data from the collections for your final project, if needed. The open lab will start at 1 p.m., and I plan to remain there all afternoon.
I encourage everyone to visit Post'Em today; I have just posted your latest grade information. Any gaps in your record should be filled in as soon as possible! Several of you haven't handed in your project bibliography and/or abstract assignment, and many have not yet turned in the nutrition lab. Also, if there are any discrepancies in your grades, please let me know.
Below are links to summaries of the human variation and dermatoglyphics presentations from this week; I especially encourage those of you who didn't make it to Monday's class to look at the human variation notes, as there's a good bit of math in that lab, and the concepts will be important for Wednesday's exam. There's also an exam study guide linked.
Human
Variation Notes
Dermatoglyphics
Notes
Second
Exam Study Guide
11-26-2002
I've finally posted summaries of the demography, hominoid, and early hominid lecture material! These summaries can be accessed via the following links:
Demography
Summary
Hominoid
Summary
Early Hominid
Summary
Also, all of the reserve readings for the entire semester are now available electronically. Most of them have the number of the relevant lab written somewhere on the first page; the rest will be pretty easy to match up with their lab. You won't have to know the material in these readings in great detail on the second exam, but you should understand the main idea in each one. Also, readings that were assigned with labs that had very little text in the manual will be more important than readings for the labs with more manual text. I'm thinking especially of the hominid readings, but there are others. The growth and development, anthropometry, and dermatoglyphics readings are meant to show how the techniques we've learned/will be learning are applied in research projects; they would serve as good examples should I ask for an application of something you've learned.
I have also provided links to a couple of interesting hominid-related sites on the links page, if you have further interest in those topics. Finally, the links below will take you to the web-based calculators you'll need to complete the diet and nutrition lab. The second link takes you to the Activity Energy Expenditure calculator; you can navigate from there to the metabolic rate calculator. (You may use other calculators for metabolic rate and energy expenditure if you wish, but you must use the Nutrition Analysis Tool to get the nutritional information about the foods you eat during the study period.)
Nutrition Analysis Tool
Basal
Metabolic Rate and Energy Expenditure Calculators
10-10-2002
Study Hints for Exam 1:
- The exam will be worth 100 points. About 70 points will come from bone and feature identification; about 15 will come from age and sex determination, measurements, and pathology; and about 15 will come from topics like directional terms and other general information from your lab manual and readings.
- You should be able to identify all the bones we have covered, either whole or in moderate-sized fragments.
- Important bone features include articular surfaces and major muscle attachments. In the axial skeleton you should also be able to identify major foramina and sutures. In general, the things most likely to be on the exam are the things mentioned the most in class and emphasized in the labs and quizzes (though of course the exam won't be identical to quizzes and labs!).
- Siding -- I'll want you to be able to side whole bones (except in the hands and feet). You should also be able to side fragmentary bones where clear side indicators are present (like on the distal humerus and femur, etc.). Don't worry, I won't ask you to side shaft fragments or pieces without clear side indicators. For cranial bones especially (though it holds true for all bones), one of the most helpful things is often to imagine where the specimen would fit into your own skeleton.
- Age determination -- If you are asked to estimate age using the pubic symphysis, reference casts and/or drawings will be available, along with the corresponding age ranges. For epiphyseal union, concentrate on the overall picture (i.e., know when the various joints unite); it would also be good to know the ages for the earliest and latest-fusing epiphyses. For dental aging, I'll only be asking about tooth eruption (not crown and root formation); again, focus on the earliest and latest eruptions in terms of specific age ranges (you won't need to be terribly specific). For cranial suture closure, the most specific I'll ask for is young adult versus old adult.
- Sex determination -- Be able to tell if an innominate or skull/cranium is more likely to be male or female. Don't try to memorize all the dimorphic features and their states in males and females; instead, concentrate on the most reliable features. There are two ways I'd ask for this: simply asking you to sex a specimen, or asking for a sex determination accompanied by brief (a couple of phrases) description of a few features used in making the determination (i.e., female because of the broad greater sciatic notch, deep preauricular sulcus, and rectangular pubic bone).
- Measurements -- The good news is, I won't be asking you to name osteomeric points! I may, however, ask you to take some of the basic measurements that we took in the osteometry lab. If you have to calculate any indices, formulae will be provided.
- Pathology/anomaly -- At this point I won't ask you to make any diagnoses. Be prepared, though, to identify the pathological changes we talked about (lipping, osteophytes, porosity, etc.) and possibly some of the discrete traits.
- Don't forget, we will be spending Monday's lab period on exam review, so be sure to be ready to ask questions!
Don't forget -- your project proposals are due in less than two weeks, and your first exam is two weeks from today! If you have any questions about your project or the exam, please let me know; I will be giving guidelines to prep for the exam soon (and posting them here as well).
Also, as I promised previously, I have posted a selection of images from your lab manual with labels removed. A few people had asked for this to be done as a study aid. If there are bones you'd like in this format but don't see posted, let me know and I'll get them up as soon as possible. The images are accessible from the new Images link at left; for now, you'll only see that link on this page.
9-6-2002
Comments, Lab 1: Just a few things to note (and keep in mind when preparing for Monday's quiz) from Lab 1.
- You handled the directional terms fine for the most part; there does seem to be some confusion over lateral/medial, though. Remember, lateral means further away from the midline.
- There were just a few common mistakes among the bone identifications: Many identified the sacrum as a coccyx; the metatarsal as a tarsal; and the carpal as a phalanx.
- Also, note that metatarsals and metacarpals are considered long bones; carpal and tarsal bones are short bones; and the clavicle is part of the appendicular (not axial) skeleton.
9-2-2002
This website will be maintained primarily as a resource for you. The syllabus is posted here, as well as links to other resources -- note especially that the Grades link to the left takes you to the PostEm student login. I also use this web page for announcements made outside of class hours, so it's a good idea to get in the habit of checking it regularly. Other materials such as handouts will also be posted here, so you'll always be able to print out a clean copy. I'm not sure how extensively we'll be using the site this semester -- in the past I've used it a lot for classes that met only once a week -- so we'll be playing it by ear.
Here's a handy quick-reference guide to major
dates and deadlines:
| Important Dates and Deadlines | |
| Sept. 9th | Quiz 1 (Ethics and skeletal terminology) |
| Sept. 16th | Quiz 2 (Bones of the skull) |
| Sept. 23rd | Quiz 3 (Dentition and axial skeleton) |
| Sept. 30th | Quiz 4 (Upper and lower limbs) |
| Oct. 14th | Project Proposal Due |
| Oct. 16th | EXAM 1 (Osteology, sex, age, osteometry, pathology and anomaly) |
| Oct. 30th | Project Bibliography Due |
| Nov. 11th | Forensic Case Reports Due |
| Nov. 25th | Project Abstract and Methods Due |
| Dec. 11th | EXAM 2 (Labs 13-23) |
| Dec. 18th | Projects Due |
- This page was last updated 2 October 2002
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~a105lh/welcomeb301.html
Contact: lharlack@indiana.edu
Copyright 2002, The Trustees of Indiana University