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ANSC 310

I. Course Title: Human Skeletal Biology

II. Course Number: ANSC 310

III. Credit Hours: 3 credits

IV. Prerequisites: ANSC 302

V. Course Description: 

This course will serve as basic level osteology course and an introduction to and exploration of the ways biological anthropologist use the skeleton to estimate age-at-death, sex, stature, ancestry and other elements of the biological profile. 

Note(s): Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning designated course.

VI. Detailed Description of Content of the Course:

  1. Bone Biology and Bone Growth
  2. Human Osteology- whole (or mostly whole bone) osteology with a focus on features and anatomical landmarks
  3. Methods to estimate age-at-death
  4. Methods to estimate sex
  5. Methods to estimate ancestry
  6. Methods to estimate stature

VI. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course:

This course will include a combination of original source readings, lectures, and laboratory activities to help them understand bony anatomy and the reconstruction of the biological profile. Students will present on different methods used to estimate these parameters from the primary literature and will practice the methods in class.  

VII. Goals and Objectives of the Course:

This course is designated as R (Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning) Area for the REAL Curriculum and fulfills the learning goal: To apply scientific and quantitative reasoning to questions about the natural world, mathematics, or related areas. Students will fulfill the learning outcomes in this area: apply scientific and quantitative information to test problems and draw conclusions and evaluate the quality of data, methods, or inferences used to generate scientific and quantitative knowledge.

This course may be applied to the REAL Studies Minor in Scientific/Quantitative Reasoning.

Goal of the Class: Students will learn whole bone osteology and evaluate and use some of the major scientific and quantitative methods involved in human skeletal biology

Learning Objectives:

  1. Students will be able to identify the bone, side and features of every human skeletal element.
  2. Students will find and present on major technical and quantitative methods used to estimate the biological profile.
  3. Students will apply the methods in human skeletal biology to our human skeletal collection and test their accuracy. 
  4. Students will evaluate the accuracy and appropriateness of the major methods in human skeletal biology

VIII. Assessment Measures:

Students may be evaluated on the basis of their performance in class discussions, presentations, lab work, papers, and/or exams. 

Review and Approval

August 2020

August 2021

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