Age changes in shape and morphology in Arikara subadult ilia

This study examines the growth of the ilium in an American Indian skeletal series. This study was done because of the lack of previous study in this area using statistical interpretation of the changes. The samples consists of subadults from four Arikara cemeteries found in northern South Dakota; two of the samples are separate occupations of the same site. An unknown age and sex sample was used because of its availability and because of the unavailability of known subadult skeletal samples. Eight measurements were taken on each ilium and two non-metric traits recorded. Maximum femur lengths, gathered in a previous study, were then matched with their corresponding ilia. Femur length was used as an indication of biological age and used to hold age changes constant. Logrithmic transformation of the raw data was performed to eliminate non-linear trends in the femur length to iliac relationships.