The transition during the fall of the Roman Empire and eventual rise of Merovingian kingdoms in northern Gaul (modern France) was a period of political upheaval, and social and economic instability. A collection of subadult skeletal remains dating to the late Roman (3rd – 5th c. AD) and Merovingian period (5th – 8th c. AD) in modern day Lisieux, France, permitted an analysis of the effects of these purported stresses on past population health using measures of growth and development. The four aims of this study are to: 1) identify growth delay using measures of growth and development; 2) determine the prevalence of rickets in this sample; 3) determine if growth disruption and frequency of rickets varied between subadults of different ages, time periods, from different burial types, or those associated with and without grave goods; and 4) discuss how the results of this study contribute to an understanding of the interpretation of health at the site, and the social, cultural, and environmental circumstances that impacted health in the past. The remains of 130 subadults from the Michelet necropolis were examined for the presence of rickets as a part of the SSHRC funded project ‘Social-Cultural Determinants of Community Wellbeing in the Western Roman Empire: Analysis and Interpretation of Vitamin D Status.’ A subset of this sample (N=60) was used further to examine disruptions in endochondral growth, appositional growth, cortical thickness, and body mass estimates. Results indicate over half (53%) of the sample exhibited stunting with growth delay beginning around two years of age, highly variable cortical thickness for age, as well as low estimates of body mass for age. Approximately 9% of subadults (N=12/130) analysed exhibited pathological and radiographic features characteristic of rickets. There were no differences between patterns of growth faltering and presence of rickets during the two time periods, between individuals with or without grave goods, or between those in different burial types. The presence of growth faltering and rickets demonstrates that this population experienced nutritional stresses, but that there were no measurable changes in health between the Roman and Merovingian periods. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Reported survival rates, dates of family breakup, and dispersal patterns for yearling and subadult bears in hunted black bear (Ursus americanus) populations in North America are scarce. We estimated survival rates of yearling and subadult black bears from a hunted population in western Virginia during 1999 - 2002. We captured and marked 307 different individual yearling and subadult bears on 2 study sites, and attached ear tag transmitters or radio collars to 54 (34M : 20F) 1-year-old, 52 (23M : 29F) 2-year-old, and 35 (8M : 27F) 3-year-old black bears. We used the known fate model in program MARK to estimate annual, non-hunting, and hunting season survival for radio-marked bears of each age and sex class. Additionally, we used mark-recapture data in the recaptures only, dead recoveries, and Burnham's combined models within program MARK to estimate annual survival for each age and sex class. One-, 2-, and 3-year-old female survivorship was 0.87 (95% C.I. 0.78 - 0.92), while 1-year male survivorship was 0.32 (95% C.I. 0.20 - 0.47), and 2- and 3-year-old male survivorship was 0.59 (95% C.I. 0.47 - 0.71) from the Burnham's combined model. Survival rates for 1-year-old females (χ2 = 6.20, P = 0.01) and 2-year-old females (χ2 = 7.74, P = 0.01) were higher than males in each age category, respectively. However, we detected no difference between 3-year-old females and 3-year-old males (χ2 = 2.61, P=0.11), likely due to small sample size of males (n = 4). Low yearling and subadult survival is not likely a cause for alarm due to the importance of adult female survival to population growth and the promiscuous mating system in black bear populations. Family breakup is an important event in the life history of black bears, marking the initial dispersal and home range construction of yearling bears, and perhaps marking the timing of estrus and breeding opportunities for adult females. We monitored 6 black bear family groups with 12 yearlings (6M : 6F) to determine the timing of family breakup; we intensely monitored 3 of the family groups to document home range establishment and movements by 5 subadult bears (2M : 3F) following separation from their mothers. Estimated dates of family breakup were 28 May and 2 June. Family breakups occurred before peak dates of estrus on our 2 western Virginia study areas. We detected 2 reassociations between a mother and her yearling offspring. Following family breakup, female yearlings (n = 3) remained within or partially on their mothers' home range while subadult males (n = 2) left their mothers' home ranges. All yearlings (n = 5) shared ≥50% of post-breakup home range with their mothers. We studied the movements of 31 (11M : 20F) subadult black bears born on our 2 study areas in western Virginia and 70 (44M : 26F) subadult bears captured during the summer on the study areas for dispersal. No radio-marked, resident, subadult female bears exhibited dispersal behavior while 3 of 11 (27%) radio-marked, resident, subadult males dispersed (P = 0.04). Resident and summer capture male bears moved greater distances than females from yearling den location (χ2 = 8.54, P = 0.01, df = 2) or summer capture location (χ2 = 22.02, P < 0.01, df = 2); no female moved > 10 km between initial and final locations (x = 2.7 km, range 0.2 - 9.0 km). The greatest subadult male movement was 80 km (x = 13.4 km, range 0.6 -0.80 km), and dispersal movements primarily occurred within the 1 and 2-year-old age classes. Direction of movement between initial and final locations for dispersing bears was not random (Rayleigh's r = 0.56, P = 0.02); bears appeared to follow the orientation of the predominant ridgelines and avoided leaving the national forest. / Master of Science

This thesis provides the beginnings of further research on the correlation between Nabataean mortuary practices and specific biological age ranges. It seeks to answer the question of whether Nabataean infants were absent from, or under-represented, in Nabataean cemeteries. Several quantitative analyses and descriptive statistics were performed, comparing Nabataean adult and subadult burials from fourteen sites. Nabataean cemetery populations were also compared with Walter Scheidel's model life table. These analyses demonstrate that Nabataean burials typically consisted of either a single adult or multiple individuals of various age ranges. Subadults, individuals under the age of 20 years, were rarely found buried by themselves, and seldom with other subadults. The comparison of Nabataean cemetery populations with Scheidel's model life table reported lower than expected percentages of individuals between the age ranges of zero to 12 years. However, this discrepancy is likely due to decay, the destruction of skeletal remains, and poor excavation techniques.

no / This was to study an archaeological population of subadult teeth in 17th and 18th century skeletal material from a London (England) cemetery for enamel defects including molar-incisor-hypomineralisation (MIH).Methods: Dentitions of 45 sub-adults were examined using standard macroscopic methods and systematically recorded. A total of 557 teeth were examined with a *5 lens and photographed. Ages of the individuals were estimated from their dental crown and root development stages and not from charts that combine tooth eruption with development stages. The dental age of the individual and the approximate age of onset of enamel defects was then calculated on the basis of the chronological sequence of incremental deposition and calcification of the enamel matrix. Affected enamel was graded macroscopically as: - Mild: <30% of the tooth¿s enamel surface area visibly disrupted (this encompasses the entire range reported in most other studies), Moderate: 31-49% of the tooth's enamel surface area visibly disrupted and Severe: >50% of the tooth's enamel surface area visibly disrupted. Results: Of the total number of individuals 41 (93.2%) showed signs of enamel developmental dysplasia or MIH, 28 of them showing moderate or severe lesions of molars, primary or permanent (63.6% of the sample). Incisors and canines, though surviving much less often, showed episodes of linear hypoplasia. Conclusion:The extensive lesions seen on many of the molars displayed cuspal enamel hypoplasia (CEH). Many of these teeth also exhibited Molar Incisal Hypomineralisation (MIH).

Establishing a chronology of variation in isotopic values can reveal frailty associated with biological and social age, as well as highlight individuals who vary from typical patterns. Although general dietary characteristics and infant feeding practices were previously unknown for subadults excavated from the cemetery at Alytus, Lithuania (14th-18th centuries), previous research concludes that Alytus' subadults experienced high rates of physiological, metabolic, non-specific stress, in addition to specific diseases like tuberculosis. To investigate nuanced relationships between diet and mortality, nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes from the femoral and humeral midshaft diaphyses of 70 subadults (32 weeks gestation to16 years) were analyzed. Dietary reconstruction reveals that on average, exclusive breastfeeding continued until around 2 years of age when enriched ?13C (-19.6‰) and ?15N values (12.7‰) begin to deplete suggesting introduction of C3 grain gruels and potential weaning-associated infirmity. Nitrogen values remained slightly elevated in children (3-5 years, 11.2‰) until the beginning of juvenility (5-8 years, 10.3‰) when ?15N more closely mirrored adult values (16 years, 10.2‰), consistent with predominant consumption of terrestrial animal protein, possibly with riverine influence. The difference between femoral to humeral ? F-H 13C (-0.05 ±0.25‰, 1?) and ? F-H 15N (- 0.01±0.45‰, 1?) was not significant, though humeral values were on average more enriched. Enrichments in humeral nitrogen and carbon coincided with estimated weaning age. Cohorts experiencing childhood and adolescent growth spurts experienced higher femoral ?13C and ?15N values. Examining dietary experience and physiological changes contributes a holistic understanding of subadult morbidity and mortality experiences in Medieval Lithuania.

The main goal of a forensic anthropological analysis of unidentified human remains is to establish an accurate biological profile. The largest obstacle in the creation or validation of techniques specific for subadults is the lack of large, modern samples. Techniques created for subadults were mainly derived from antiquated North American or European samples and thus inapplicable to a modern South African population as the techniques lack diversity and ignore the secular trends in modern children. This research provides accurate and reliable methods to estimate age and sex of South African subadults aged birth to 12 years from long bone lengths and breadths, as no appropriate techniques exist. Standard postcraniometric variables (n = 18) were collected from six long bones on 1380 (males = 804, females = 506) Lodox Statscan-generated radiographic images housed at the Forensic Pathology Service, Salt River and the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. Measurement definitions were derived from and/or follow studies in fetal and subadult osteology and longitudinal growth studies. Radiographic images were generated between 2007 and 2012, thus the majority of children (70%) were born after 2000 and thus reflect the modern population. Because basis splines and multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) are nonparametric the 95% prediction intervals associated with each age at death model were calculated with cross-validation. Numerous classification methods were employed namely linear, quadratic, and flexible discriminant analysis, logistic regression, naïve Bayes, and random forests to identify the method that consistently yielded the lowest error rates. Because some of the multivariate subsets demonstrated small sample sizes, the classification accuracies were bootstrapped to validate results. Both univariate and multivariate models were employed in the age and sex estimation analyses. Standard errors for the age estimation models were smaller in most of the multivariate models with the exception of the univariate humerus, femur, and tibia diaphyseal lengths. Univariate models provide narrower age estimates at the younger ages but the multivariate models provide narrower age estimates at the older ages. Diaphyseal lengths did not demonstrate any significant sex differences at any age, but diaphyseal breadths demonstrated significant sex differences throughout the majority of the ages. Classification methods utilizing multivariate subsets achieved the highest accuracies, which offer practical applicability in forensic anthropology (81% to 90%). Whereas logistic regression yielded the highest classification accuracies for univariate models, FDA yielded the highest classification accuracies for multivariate models. This study is the first to successfully estimate subadult age and sex using an extensive number of measurements, univariate and multivariate models, and robust statistical analyses. The success of the current study is directly related to the large, modern sample size, which ultimately captured a wider range of human variation than previously collected for subadult diaphyseal dimensions. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Anatomy / unrestricted